KUALA LUMPUR: The national men’s hockey team aims to reach the final of the six-nation Sultan Azlan Shah (SAS) Cup in Ipoh from Nov 20-28.
The Speedy Tigers started the year in the Nations Cup in Cape Town, South Africa in June, finishing fifth among eight nations, before featuring in the World Cup in Belgium in August and finishing last among 16 teams.
But Brendon Carolan’s men did well to win silver at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in September and bronze at the Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) in Punjab, India last month.
The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup will be the national team’s fifth tournament this year.
The other teams featuring in the SAS Cup are world No 3 Australia, Pakistan (12th), Canada (19th), South Korea (20th) and the United States (26th).
Former world and Olympic champions Australia will be looking to win their 11th SAS Cup title since the inception of the tournament in 1983.
Malaysia, ranked 14th in the world, will open their campaign against South Korea, whom they outplayed 5-2 in the ACT.
Midfielder Fitri Saari said they will be going all out for a medal in their third consecutive tournament.
“It will be great to finish on the podium in three back-to-back tournaments,” said Fitri.
“Winning silver in the Asian Games was a boost for us and we also did well to bag bronze in ACT.
“SAS Cup will be our last tournament for this year and as the host, we want to win a medal.
“Although we are the third-ranked team in the tournament after Australia and Pakistan, we want to go one step further to reach the final.
“Our matches against Pakistan have always been close, we believe that we can beat them to reach the final.”
Malaysia edged Pakistan 5-4 in the group stage in the Asian Games.
“We also cannot underestimate other teams and we will take one match at a time,” said Fitri, who made his debut for Malaysia in ACT in Ordos, China in 2011 and has represented Malaysia 248 times.
Malaysia will not have the services of experienced forward Akhimullah Anuar Esook and defender Aminudin Zain as both are injured.
Youngsters Rahuul Fazrien Nazrien and Nabil Irfan Yusof will be the replacements.
Striker Rahuul, 19 and defender Nabil, 20, who is captain of the national junior team, guided Malaysia to the five- nation Under-21 Sultan of Johor Cup title last month.