Indoor Hockey: Women's squad bent on revenge against Indonesia at Sea Games

KUALA LUMPIUR - Besides defending the gold medal, the national women's indoor hockey squad are on a 'revenge' mission against Indonesia at the Sea Games in Cambodia this May.

Team striker Qasidah Najwa Muhammad Halimi described the defeat suffered by the national team at the 2022 Asia Cup Indoor Hockey Championship to Indonesia as a nightmare for her.

She said more so now that the Indonesian team are coached by former national women's squad coach Muhammad Dharma Raj Abdullah, who guided Malaysia to the gold at the 2019 Sea Games in the Philippines.

"Coach Dharma knows all about Malaysia but it's not a problem, we can still beat them. In the Asia Cup match in Thailand we only narrowly lost, Indonesia won with a last minute goal, Malaysia should have won, but we were just out of luck.

"The Cambodia' Sea Games is an opportunity for us to exact avenge for that defeat, it was a nightmare to lose to Indonesia under Dharma's handling," she told reporters when met at the squad's training session for the biennial games here.

At the 2022 Asia Cup Indoor Hockey Championship, the national squad were defeated by Indonesia 0-1 in the semi-finals before winning the bronze medal by beating Kazakhstan 2-0 in the third and fourth place decider.

Qasidah Najwa, who also leads the frontline for Malaysia Indoor Hockey League (MIHL) champions DBKL HT, said that although the players in the squad that will competing in Cambodia are mostly new faces, she is optimistic that the team is still strong and capable of emerging champions.

At the same time, she also aims to contribute as many goals as possible for the national team who are currently coached by Mohd Badrul Hisham Osman.

The national men's and women's indoor hockey teams swept the gold medals at the 2019 Philippines SEA Games.- BERNAMA