NOT everything is about results, considering the just-concluded 31st edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup International Invitational tournament in Ipoh.

The current phase is all about preparing for the World Cup qualifier in February 2026, and the Asian Games in Japan towards the end of next year.

The return of Faizal Saari to the national team after nine months of hiatus has been a blessing to coach Sarjit Singh’s Speedy Tigers. With 307 international caps, the 34-year-old Faizal scored five goals in the tournament and is regarded as the most precious diamond in the team, despite his age.

He is the fourth highest scorer in the SAS Cup after New Zealand’s Sam Lane (9 goals), Belgian Tom Boon, the FIH World Player of the Year (6 goals), Korean Kim Hyeonhong (6 goals), and Faizal.

Coming into the SAS Cup, the players were not short on form nor confidence. What the team lacked was high-quality pre-tournament matches to face the might of Belgium, India and New Zealand, not excluding South Korea and Canadians.

Malaysia’s 6-1 defeat to Nations Cup champions New Zealand for the bronze medal, says a lot on the importance of the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) and coach Sarjit doubling their resources and efforts for the benefit of the national team.

“We conceded two early goals in the first few minutes against New Zealand. That’s where it was difficult to chase the game. Because we tried to chase the game we conceded a third goal,” said Sarjit.

“But the boys knew this game was going to be very tough. But even though we were down by 5-0, we still tried to came back and tried our best.”

“We could have scored another few more goals, but the finishing let us down. When you are In front of the goalmouth you need to score a few,” he added.

He acknowledged that New Zealand played very well.

“They moved the ball very well in the first and second quarters.  However, we were better in the third and fourth quarters but the thing that hit us was we couldn’t get the goals. Compared to the 2-2 drawn game against New Zealand in the preliminary round, the team started off well.”

Meanwhile, Sarjit added that penalty corner specialist Syed Syafiq Syaed Cholan is recovering from knee injury and has is resting to recover.

“The physio informed us that Syed Syafiq’s injury is quite bad and that we should not play him for some time until he recovers. We rested him as the Olympic qualifier is at the end of February, beginning of March. So, we have less than two and a half months. But we still have the main players. Our midfield is strong. Our forwards are strong,” he added.

As for the tournament, the final finish standings reflected the teams World rankings except for Canada who were ranked 20 beat Korea who were ranked 15th,in the 5th and 6th placing match.

Belgium as the best ranked team in the tournament, ranked third. emerged champions beating India by a solitary goal – the 2025 Asia Cup champions, five-time SAS Cup winners and ranked 5th in the world who returned to the tournament after a six-year hiatus.

The Belgians, who finished second to the Netherlands in the FIH Men’s 2024-2025 Pro League, returned to the tournament after 17 years.

The final was graced by the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, and Raja Permaisuri Perak Tuanku Zara Salim.

New Zealand who finished third after thumping Malaysia’s 6-1 are world ranked 11  while Malaysia were ranked 13.

However, many teams came with mixed teams as part for preparation for their upcoming tournaments.

While Canada stood out in the tournament with improved performance, probably host Malaysia were a letdown even losing to Korea – which was their only win in the tournament.

But overall, the tournament provided some exciting and interesting performance by the majority of the teams for the fans to watch quality matches.

Only the rain marred the first two days of the competition before the organisers decided to start the matches two hours earlier for the next three days which helped avoid the bad weather.

Organisation was excellent but Malaysia’s performance was the downside of the tournament.

ROLL OF HONOUR:

Champion: Belgium

Runners-Up: India

Third: New Zealand

Fourth: Malaysia

Fifth: Canada

Sixth: South Korea

Player of the Tournament: Tom Boon (Belgium)

Top goal scorer: Sam Lane (9 Goals, New Zealand)

Best Goalkeeper: Vincent Vanasch (Belgium)

Fair Play: South Korea

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