KUALA LUMPUR: Enough of the excuses, Sarjit Singh.
The 10-1 thrashing by world No. 5 Germany in Gladbach should be the final straw.
The Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) must address the issues within the national team and decide on the future of Sarjit as the national men's hockey coach.
Although Sarjit is rebuilding the team for the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games, Malaysia's results have been disappointing since his appointment in March.
In his first tournament, the national team finished fourth out of six teams at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in May before taking seventh position at the Nations Cup, a qualifier for the FIH Pro League, in Poland in June.
MHC did not set a target for the SAS Cup but was expecting the team to reach the final. In the Nations Cup, Malaysia targeted a semi-final spot.
The Speedy Tigers continued training before heading to Europe recently for a series of friendly matches.
Fans expected the Speedy Tigers to take on Belgium's first team, the reigning Olympic champions, in Antwerp.
However, Belgium B turned up for three friendlies, with Malaysia recording two wins and one defeat before the 10-1 bashing by world No. 5 Germany.
Despite the poor results, Sarjit's key performance index (KPI) will only be reviewed in 2026.
Sports analyst Datuk Dr. Pekan Ramli disagreed with MHC's decision to review Sarjit after two years.
"A KPI is the benchmark for every coach in the world to see how his team is progressing," said Pekan on Monday.
"Most sports associations want to see some progress when they hire a coach. Why wait until the grace period of two years to do a KPI on coach Sarjit?
"Sarjit is not building a development team that he has to wait for two years to see the results.
"He is in charge of the national team, which have several players with international experience.
"By not setting any KPI within these two years, does it mean no one can question the team's poor results?
"Malaysian hockey could return to the drawing board if we do not see any improvement in the next two years.
"Is this what fans want? It would be a waste of money and time if Sarjit does not achieve the objective."
Pekan added that Malaysia was lucky that the match against Germany was only a friendly. "The 10-1 scoreline exposes Malaysia's standard in world hockey. I believe Germany would have won by a bigger margin if it were a test match (with ranking points).
"The team are not prepared to take on the big guns. We shouldn't be playing against top European teams just yet.
"For the start, Malaysia should play more matches against nations of their standard first to build confidence and improve before facing top teams," Pekan added.
Former national captain Nor Saiful Zaini said the heavy defeat to Germany was demoralising. "These players are not going to get any motivation from it. However, I believe it will take time for Sarjit to rebuild the team."
However, Nor Saiful noted that as he could remember, even the great Malaysian teams in the past had failed to beat Germany.
"We have not beaten Germany. Even when Malaysia were at their peak, they could never beat Germany," said Nor Saiful, who represented Malaysia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where Malaysia lost 1-0 to the Germans.
Malaysia and Germany have faced off eight times since 1964, with the latter winning seven of those matches.
The Malaysian team achieved a 0-0 result against Germany at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Prior to the 10-1 bashing, Malaysia's biggest defeat to Germany was 6-0 in the quarter-finals of the 2013 World League Semifinals in Johor Baru.
Sarjit's side will now regroup and take on German club Monchengladbach in a friendly on Tuesday. The team will then take on the Netherlands and India, who are preparing for the Paris Olympics, in friendlies before returning to Kuala Lumpur.
MHC president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal told Timesport that Sarjit has a plan for the team to peak for the 2026 Asian Games.
"Sarjit has a plan, so let him go through it. We have many young players in the team, and they must go through the processes to improve and make inroads," said Subahan.