Anthoni plots downfall of homeland

He’s Ireland’s inside man as they prepare for one of the biggest weekends of their hockey careers, but Arul Anthoni insists the emotional aspect of facing his native Malaysia won’t be an issue for him. This sold-out final pool clash (today, 3pm) always looked to be the crunch one for the Irish as they seek a place in tomorrow’s final of the Electric Ireland FIH Road to London — likely against Korea — with the winner taking the sole Olympic qualification berth on offer. A draw will get Ireland to the decider. Anthoni is Ireland’s assistant coach, a role he previously held with his home nation Malaysia, for whom he earned 80 caps as a player. He admits his personal ties to the Malaysian setup made life hard for him when the sides met in the 2009 Champions Challenge semi-final, with a 2-1 victory for the Irish proving a landmark one for the sides as they began to believe they could topple sides ranked higher. But Anthoni isn’t expecting any such issues this time around.

“It was tougher for me in 2009 because it was fresh but now I’m over it. I’ve been here for five years, working with the lads and Paul [Revington] for three. “The group of Malaysia players then, out of 16, I coached maybe 14. This group there are only four or five left who I coached previously. The emotional part is not much.” Ireland have performed largely as expected thus far this week with three straightforward wins over weaker opposition sandwiched by a tense 1-1 draw with favourites Korea. It’s hard to know what to expect from Malaysia, who have had a few scares along the way amid reports of dissatisfaction within the camp about the weather, facilities and the UCD pitch, with coach Tai Beng Hai claiming it was too fast and hard. But they have one of the tournament’s superstars in Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin and a powerful short corner unit which is due a good outing, while they showed their quality in coming from two down against Korea to level it before being edged out 3-2. They are cheered on in Dublin by a long list of dignitaries including Sultan Azlan Shah, their national sports council director general and minister for sport. Anthoni explained the importance of hockey in the Malaysian sporting psyche: “In Malaysia, hockey is one of the biggest sports after football with a lot of support from the sports council and the government which allows players to go full-time which we don’t get here [in Ireland], something I wish we could get. It is a big thing that Malaysia has not been to an Olympics or a World Cup for the last two or three times so the whole nation is behind them.” As Ireland go into the game a point better off than the Malaysians after four games, a tie will suffice to send them through to Sunday’s final, with tournament favourites Korea the likely opponents. But coach Paul Revington won’t countenance the notion of taking on a defensive approach should Ireland get a go-ahead goal: “I don’t think this group of players trains and plays for draws; to end up where we want to be we’ve got to win games. Saturday is about playing properly, and hoping that secures a result for us.”

With Cork-born centre-back Conor Harte ruled out of the remainder of the tournament after taking a ball to the head during Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with Korea, Revington dropped midfielder Andy McConnell into the defensive rotation in Thursday’s 3-0 win over Chile while Paul Glgehorne and John Jackson spent time at centre-back alongside skipper Ronan Gormley. And the coach insists his side have enough ability to combat Harte’s loss while adding that the Holland-based player is recovering well. “Conor is stable. Obviously he is ruled out of the event but everyone is very pleased he doesn’t have any massive damage after a pretty serious blow to the head,” Revington said. “In the last 18 months, we have built a fairly sizeable panel of players. The number of players who can play at the back and the midfield is ok and we can absorb it.” Electric Ireland FIH Road to London Olympic qualifier, UCD Saturday: Korea v Russia, 10am; Chile v Ukraine, 12.30pm; Ireland v Malaysia, 3pm. Sunday: Classification games:  5th/6th playoff, 11am; 3rd/4th playoff, 1.30pm; Final, 4pm.