KUCHING: A blunt strikeforce is giving Pahang coach Sufian Mohamad a headache as they defend their men's hockey gold won at the 2022 Malaysia Games (Sukma).
Sufian's team were made to sweat before securing a narrow 2-1 victory over Sabah in their Sukma's Group A opener at the Padungan Hockey Stadium in Sarawak today.
He said his players squandered many scoring opportunities, and converted only one of the six penalty corners.
"In terms of play and player interaction, I'm not very happy, especially with the finishing. The players need to improve.
"Many clear scoring chances were wasted. If they had made the right decisions, they would have scored more goals.
"We also need to sharpen our penalty corners ahead of the next match," Sufian said.
Pahang opened the scoring with Harris Iskandar Osman converting a penalty corner in the 28th minute before Sabah equalised, also from a penalty corner, by Ahmad Alhakim Abd Rakib in the 48th.
Pahang, however, managed to get the winner through Airil Abd Razak's field goal in the 56th.
Pahang will meet Kelantan in their second group match tomorrow. "Kelantan have many players from the Malaysian Sports School. They played several friendly matches in Terengganu beforehand.
"We will watch videos of their play and devise a strategy. This will be our second match and Kelantan's first, which should give us an advantage as we've already adapted to the pitch here," he said.
At the 2022 Sukma in Kuala Lumpur, Pahang ended a 26-year drought by winning the gold medal in the biennial event, defeating Johor 1-0 in the final.