25 Aug Make or break for THT and KLHC in quarterfinals

It will be the end of the road for either Terengganu Hockey Team (THT) or Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) in the TNBMHL 2016 Knockout Tournament with the two heavyweights drawn for an early showdown in the quarterfinals for the Tan Sri P. Alagendra Cup.

Terengganu Hockey Team and Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club will be embroiled in another pulsating encounter at the Batu Buruk Hockey Stadium in Kuala Terengganu on August 30 when the draw for the quarterfinals was held today at the Malaysian Hockey Confederation office at the Tun Razak Stadium.

As for THT, it will be an early opportunity to erase the 1-2 defeat inflicted by KLHC in the season opener TNBMHL 2016 Charity Shield match played on August 19 at the same venue. Both teams received byes in the first round.

“We are fated to meet KLHC. That’s the luck of the draw. We lost at home in the Charity Shield match and hopefully, we can make amends to get a better result. This is a great opportunity early on,” said THT head coach Sarjit Singh.

KLHC team manager, Ahmad Anuar Sham Kamar, however, believes the early clash with THT would pump up the adrenaline among the players and go for a second straight win against their arch nemesis.

“THT is a very strong Premier League side and playing them on their own turf has never been easy. It is going to be a very challenging and tense match. Although we received a bye in the first round we knew all along that the quarterfinals are going to be tough and here we are faced to play THT,” said Ahmad Anuar after the draw was concluded.

“We hope to carry on our momentum. There is going to be a lot of pressure on both teams to win and expectations are going to be very high,” he added.

Another all-Premier League team’s quarterfinals clash will be between Tenaga Nasional Berhad and Universiti Kuala Lumpur. TNB pulverized Universiti Teknologi MARA 11-0 in the first round on Tuesday while UniKL showed Maybank the exit with a Najmi Farizal Jazlan 11th minute penalty corner goal.

Sapura Hockey Club has been drawn to meet ATM Airod at the Tun Razak Stadium while Politeknik Malaysia goes into a quarterfinals showdown with Johor-based Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports School at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium. SSTMI mesmerized Bukit Jalil Sports School 7-0 in the first round.

Quarterfinals (30 August, 2016):Terengganu Hockey Team v Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (Stadium Hoki Batu Buruk, Kuala Terengganu, 5.30pm)); Politeknik Malaysia v SSTMI (Stadium Taman Daya, Johor Baru, 6.00pm)); Sapura Hockey Club v ATM Airod (Stadium Tun Razak, 6.00pm); Universiti Kuala Lumpur v Tenaga Nasional Berhad (KLHA Stadium, 6.00pm).