crescent hockey

Over the Good Friday weekend, 7th and 8th of April 2007, Crescent Hockey Club was invited to play in a Quadrangular Tournament in Johor organized in conjunction with the Sultan’s birthday. The teams that participated in this tournament include Penang Under 18 Sports School, Johor and Malaysian Police.

We participated in this tournament with an objective of gaining exposure and meeting up with old friends from the Johor side. We came into the tournament thinking that most probably we would get beaten up quite badly and so our approach was to reduce the score-line.

Our first game against Johor was played in the blazing hot weather. We only brought with us 12 players for the tournament as the rest of our players had other commitments including exams. Despite having only 1 substitute, we played very well against the host team. We had a number of goal scoring opportunities which we missed by a hair strand. In the second half, the heat finally got to us and we conceded two goals. The loss against Johor left us bitter and hungry for goals. We knew that we could probably match up against the other teams after watching Malaysian police and Penang played against each other.

We played Penang in the same afternoon in yet another extreme weather condition. We scored against Penang in the 6th minute through Farha’s clever play of slipping the ball past the goalkeeper who had dived too early. As we were playing, suddenly it poured heavily and the game had top be stopped. Part of the stadium was flooded because of the loose soil on the slopes that were washed down in the rain. There was a long break while waiting for the storm to cease. When the rain was lighter, we continued with the game, by this time, we were soaked to the bones, freezing and feeling hungry but we stayed focused. We played beyond our expectations against Penang but a number of players suffered serious bruises from the high tackles of our opponents. The final result of the match was a draw. We were the only team to have drawn against Penang. Penang beat Malaysian police 3-1 and Johor 2-0 bagging 7 points in the league.

The late morning match against a more experienced team, Malaysian Police took place in yet another extremely hot weather. Fear of dehydration saw our players drinking lots and lots of water. The Malaysian Police came hard on us and their basic hitting and trapping skills were really good. Our strategy was to give long balls into their 25 and attack from there. This forced them to run back to defend thus tiring them out. The first half ended in a 1-1 draw. Our goal came from Lynn Norhana, our defensive centrehalf who penetrated from their 25 yard line and scored with a low hard flick into the left corner of the goal. We were disgruntled with the short corner goal that they put in as it was clearly lifted at shoulder height coming from a direct hit. However the umpire allowed the goal claiming that it was deflected off our runner’s stick. We had many more opportunities to score and our defenders did a great job protecting our 25 yard area. We scored the winning goal in the 2nd half through Rilaini and she celebrated with what looked like a tribal dance – it’s not the first time that she made the team laugh with her way of celebrating goals.

The team was ecstatic as we left the stadium after the match. We had qualified for the finals and were scheduled to play at 5pm against Penang. We were really determined to win Penang and we believed that we could do it. We went for a quick lunch and went back to the stadium where our friendly hosts had offered to share their dormitory with us.

It was raining when we started the Finals. The pitch was flooded and the rain felt like a machine gun shooting numerous rounds on us. We could barely keep our eyes open as the rain pelted down. The game was disrupted by the heavy downpour and so we were forced to finish the game with penalty shootout. Our goalkeeper made two outstanding saves against Penang’s best. We won the penalty shootout 3-1 without the last flicker having to flick. Our goalkeeper Nurulhuda was named the best goalkeeper for the tournament.

Winning this tournament was a milestone for us. It was a great way to get ourselves ready for the premier league. It was a tournament worth remembering  for a long time.