UPON qualifying for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Malaysia bounced back strongly after a poor start under the guidance of our new coach, Stephen van Huizen.
He delivered what was asked of him when Malaysia was present once more at an Olympics event since Atlanta in 1996.
Former national captain, van Huizen, took over as coach from Paul Lissek after the Commonwealth Games in 1998 where host nation, Malaysia, won its historic silver.
Van Huizen, together with Yahya Atan, was assisting Lissek when the German had to return home after the Games as he was still under contract with his country’s hockey federation.
As a result of his previous stints as assistant coach under Australian Terry Walsh and German Volker Knapp, van Huizen had the experience to mastermind our successful entry into the Sydney Olympics.
Van Huizen's first assignment was in December for the 1998 Asian Games in Thailand where Malaysia finished fifth.
It was not the best performance due to our short recovery period after the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games on September 16 to 21 and the 1998 World Cup from June 20 to July 1.
It must be said that our priority in 1998 was the Commonwealth Games and we did well with that memorable silver.
Besides his brilliance on the pitch during his playing days, van Huizen had the advantage of knowing the German and Australian playing styles from working under Walsh, Knapp and Lissek.
As a result of this, van Huizen had numerous options in terms of the concept, structure and philosophy he wished to apply to the team, including some strong aspects, such as lowering Malaysia's centre of gravity in order to have the advantage in fast-turning movements coupled with increased agility, skill and speed.
Similar to Lissek, van Huizen also emphasised on video analysis sessions to improve the team.
Another thing that he included was an adherence to the players' spiritual beliefs, whereby Muslim players would have their prayers, and likewise, so would the Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists in their own manner.
As players, we had no issues with van Huizen at the helm as we were already accustomed to him since his stint as an assistant coach.
As a team, we were strong, and like one big family, we were focused on the task ahead: qualifying for the Sydney Olympics.
In preparation for that, we had a playing tour of Osaka, which gave us the opportunity to acclimatise ourselves with the cold weather and environment after playing five to seven matches in all.
The squad at Osaka: Roslan Jamaluddin, Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim, S.Kuhan, Maninderjit Singh, K. Gobinathan, Chua Boon Huat, Nor Azlan Bakar, Jiwa Mohan, K. Keevan Raj, Calvin Fernandez, K. Logan Raj, Suhaimi Ibrahim, M. Kaliswaran, Chairil Anwar Aziz, Nor Saiful Zaini Nasiruddin, Shaiful Azli Rahman, Syayrim Uda Karim and myself.
The 2000 Olympics qualifiers were held in Osaka on March 9 to 20 with the top six, out of 12 participating teams, making it to Sydney.
Group A comprised South Korea, Poland, hosts Japan, Britain, New Zealand and Belgium. Group B had Spain, Pakistan, Argentina, Malaysia, Switzerland and Belarus.
The weather was terribly cold in Osaka but still, we had to do what was needed, which was to qualify for the Sydney Olympics.
We kept on focusing on our training before the tournament started. I must say I missed R. Shankar, my roommate since 1990, who quit after the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
Our first match in Osaka was against Spain on March 10 and we lost 7-1, which was obviously not a good start to our campaign.
It was not the end for we had only lost a battle not the war so we remained focused on the second match.
Saiful and I were highly motivated to qualify for the Sydney Olympics, as it would be our last.
Bounce back we did, and in style, I might add, when we defeated Belarus 7-1 the following day; that was what we wanted and we were happy with this big win.
We drew 4-4 with Jorge Lombi-led Argentina in our third match on March 12; renowned penalty corner specialist Lombi struck a hattrick in a thrilling match with Kuhan equalising in the 64th minute.
Malaysia defeated Switzerland 4-2 in the fourth match on March 19 but lost 5-2 to Pakistan in the last group match the following day to finish fourth in the Group B standings.
Then came the big fifth to eighth classification match against host, Japan, on March 18. The winners would garner a place at Sydney by finishing at least sixth in this qualifier.
Although we were positive we could do it, negative thoughts kept creeping in due to the tremendous pressure we faced while preparing for this deciding match.
Knowing that Japan would be highly motivated, we lost sleep thinking about this do-or-die clash: namely because they had never qualified for the Olympics and secondly, they would be playing in front of their fans.
Mind you, the match was at 10 am and this means we had to wake up by 6 am to do some stretching exercises before breakfast, which we had to have three hours before the match.
Van Huizen’s routine pep-talk in the changing room prior to the match, coupled with team manager Datuk R. Yogeswaran’s motivational words and then Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) president, the late Sultan Azlan Shah’s presence, motivated us further to achieve our goal.
Although we were prepared, both physically and mentally, against the Japanese, Malaysia was down by 1-0 when Daisuke Hokaze struck from a penalty corner in the sixth minute of the game.
The pressure was on but we kept fighting and managed to equalise via a field goal from Suhaimi in the 29th minute.
At halftime, van Huizen reassured us to keep calm and to continue our hard work because we believed we could do it.
Although it seemed that the match would go into extra time to decide the outcome with both teams battling on, I managed to earn a penalty corner in the 65th minute and believed that this was our best chance to clinch the winning goal.
After I told the players to execute a set-piece during the "scrum" (meeting before the penalty corner), Kuhan perfectly executed a dramatic goal that gave Malaysia a 2-1 advantage with five minutes remaining on the clock.
The match ended and it was, ‘Sydney, here we come!’.
Although Malaysia lost 2-1 to Britain in the fifth and sixth placing match, we had achieved what we set out to achieve at Osaka -- a place in the Sydney Olympics.
Van Huizen successfully did what he had to do, and he did it his way. ─ The Vibes, 8 January, 2021
