Today the event commences (6 January) and conclude on 12 January 2023. Oman Hockey Association will be the host of this junior men’s title. Eight Men’s National Junior Hockey Teams will participate in the event.
The match schedule for the event it has 2 pools. The top four teams qualified for the 2023 Junior Asia Cup.
The venue for all matches will be the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex which is the most important stadium in the city of Muscat. It is used for multiple sports events and has a capacity of 34,000 seated people. The last edition of this tournament was also held at this venue.
Men’s Junior AHF Cup Participating Teams:
Pool A: Oman, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia
Pool B: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong China, Uzbekistan
Bangladesh 4 vs Hong Kong China 0
The first match of this sixth edition of the Men’s Junior Cup 2023 was between Bangaldesh vs Hong Kong China for Pool B. The team led by RASHED Mamun makes its third appearance in this cup, while the team led by DILLON Kulwant completes its fourth appearance in this junior tournament.
The match started 2 minutes into the game with a goal by ALI Md. who quickly put his team ahead in the opening match. With the 1-0 lead, HKC players tried to be more offensive to tie it as soon as possible.
1 minute before the end of the second quarter, HASAN Md made it 2-0 to go to the break. Already in the second half, more specifically in the 21st minute ISLAM Amirul converted a penalty corner goal to make it 3-0, giving HKC a motivation to go out to look for the result and score as soon as possible.
The work done by McNEIL Cameron and his team was not enough, and it was in the 57th minute that the 19 year old player ALI Md. scored his second goal in this match and in the tournament.
The match ended 4-0 with victory for Bangladesh. The next match will be tomorrow against Sri Lanka, while Hong Kong China will be looking for their first win against Uzbekistan.
The best player of the match was HASAN Md shirt #10.
Thailand 2 vs Indonesia 1
The second match of the day was between Thailand and Indonesia in Group A. The Thais are making their fourth appearance having participated in the 2008, 2014 and 2019 editions. On the other hand, Indonesia is making its first appearance in the Men’s Junior AHF Cup.
The team led by NURSEHA Muhammad started the match with all the lights, scoring their first goal after 16 minutes to take the lead from the first half. The boys in red gave no rest and tried many, many chances inside the circle to convert on PHOSAWANG Wistawas goal. Unsuccessfully the Reds were outplayed by the Thais who already have experience in this kind of tournaments, and in the 35th minute PHUMEE Kritsana converted the 1-1 penalty corner to tie the match and give hope to the Reds.
It was a tough match that was played until the last minutes, that the match was decided in the 56th minute with another penalty corner goal scored by RUNGNIYOM Chanachol to make the final score 2-1.
The best player of the match was Thailand’s number 13 KAEOCHIANGHWANG Worawut who is only 17 years old.
Thailand will play on January 8 against Oman, while Indonesia will play against Chinese Taipei.
Sri Lanka 3 vs Uzbekistan 7
The third match of the day was between Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan in Pool B. The RATNAM team is the only one (along with Chinese Taipei and Oman) to participate in all 6 editions of this tournament, with this year’s edition they qualified for their sixth cup. For its part, the Uzbek team is making its second appearance having participated for the first time in the 2019 edition where they took fourth place.
The Uzbek team came out with all the energy to improve the fourth place they got in 2019, it is by this force that 5 minutes into the match ISMOILOV Amur with jersey #10 put the 1-0 penalty corner. From then on, the match did not stop witnessing a cataract of goals coming from one side and from the other side of the pitch.
The same player scored 3 more goals to help his team win.
Before the end of the first half, the Uzbek team was already 4-0 up, two of those goals coming from penalty corners. RATNAM’s team did not want to let the blue wave settle in the match and thus widen the goal difference, which is why at the end of the first half they managed to score their first goal through HEWAWASAM Alisandarage to end the first half 5-1.
Already at the beginning of the second half ISMOILOV Amur scored his fourth goal to put his team ahead 6-1, showing superiority of play over his opponent who did not give up, and after 6 minutes put the 6-2 with a penalty corner goal by captain BATUVITA Sandaruwan who wanted to cut the difference in the score as soon as possible.
This was not enough as in the 51st minute MADAMINOV Abdusalom made it almost definitive 7-1 to give the first victory to his team.
In the last minute of the game the players in white did not give up and managed to score the last goal by BANDARA Pramod to end the game 7-3 with a victory for Uzbekistan.
The goals were scored by: ISMOILOV Amur x 4, KHAMITOV Omadbek x 2, HEWAWASAM Alisandarage x 1, BATUVITA Sandaruwan x 1, MADAMINOV Abdusalom x 1, BANDARA Pramod x 1.
The Uzbek team will play against Hong Kong China tomorrow January 7, while Sri Lanka will play against Bangladesh on the same day.
The best player of the match was ISMOILOV Amur who scored 4 goals, he is the captain of this team that promises a lot in this tournament, and he is only 18 years old.
Oman 5 vs Chinese Taipei 0
In the last match of the day, Oman and Chinese Taipei faced each other. The host of this tournament against a historical of this competition. Oman won this tournament once and reached the final 2 other times. Chinese Taipei won the first edition of this tournament and took third place three other times.
As you can see two teams with a lot of experience in this tournament, it was expected to be a hot match where anything could happen.
The first goal of the match was scored by BARAZAHAN Asama to give his team the lead from a penalty corner. Although both teams had very high expectations in the debut, it was expected that Oman would come out with a plus since they were at home, in their stadium and with their people.
LIN Min Nan’s team did not want to make any false move, they wanted to control the match by being as offensive as possible. But it was not until two minutes after the first goal that AL BALUSHI Hassan made it 2-0 to extend the lead for the home team.
The men in white were looking for their spaces, trying to attack and hurt the men in red, but none of this happened in the first half. In the last minute of the second quarter a penalty corner was taken which ended in a goal by BARAZAHAN Asama again to make it 3-0 before the break.
A minute into the second half, the team led by AL RAISI Khalid did not let up and made it 4-0 with a goal by AL-NOUFALI Aliyas.
The team in red had the match under control, while Chinese Taipei tried to defend against the offensive attacks of their opponent, but this was not enough and in the 40th minute MADIT Aiman made it 5-0.
8 minutes later through a penalty corner BAIT Hussam made it 6-0 for his team, scoring his first goal in this tournament.
Chinese Taipei wanted to score and managed 2 minutes later to score their first goal of the match by CHANG Chun-Yu to make it 6-1.
To secure their victory in the 54th, 56th and 57th minutes, Oman scored three more goals by BAIT Hussam, x 2 and AL-NOUFALI Aliyas, two of them from penalty corners. In this way the match would end 9-1 with a great victory for the local team.
Chinese Taipei will play against Indonesia on January 8 for Pool A, while Oman will play against Thailand.
