PETALING JAYA: Razie Rahim may have been feeling the pressure of shouldering the burden of being the prime penalty corner flicker for the Speedy Tigers for almost a decade but he should breathe easy with the emergence of Aminuddin Zain.
Razie, 36, has been part of the Tigers squad since 2006 and has a mammoth 325 caps and had scored 141 goals, with more than 90% of his goals coming from penalty corners.
His goals were crucial in helping Malaysia finish runners-up in the Asian Cup in Jakarta and win the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup for the first time in Ipoh last year but the scoring machine has struggled to hit the target regularly this year.
National coach A. Arulselvaraj has been trying out several options to lessen the pressure on Razie and Aminuddin has been settling into the supporting role nicely.
The penalty corner duties are also shared by striker Faizal Saari and defender Najmi Farizal Jazlan but it is the 28-year-old Aminuddin who has emerged as the best replacement for Razie.
Aminuddin, a mainstay since making his debut at last year’s Azlan Shah Cup, has 30 caps to his name and has scored seven goals, all through penalty corners, with the Hangzhou Asian Games being his best outing with four goals.
His services will be crucial as Malaysia will be banking on penalty corner goals in order to secure one of three spots for the Paris 2024 Olympics during the FIH Olympics Qualifiers in Muscat, Oman, from Jan 15-21.
Arulselvaraj believes Aminuddin can share the penalty corner duties with Razie as the team need the goals through those set-pieces to win battles in Oman.
Malaysia are in Group B with world No. 4 Britain, Pakistan and China where the first objective will be to reach the semi-finals before pushing for a top three finish in the knockout stage.
“Aminuddin has done well and has scored some goals (through penalty corners) for us and he just needs to build up his confidence. He is one of the two main flickers alongside Razie,” said Arulselvaraj.
“In terms of technique, he is one of our best players and I need to manage him. He shares the responsibility of penalty corner executions with Razie.
“Besides that, we also have Faizal and Najmi who can also be penalty corner takers.
“We have been working hard on improving penalty corner conversions, turning rebounds into goals during those set-pieces and defending well during the opposition’s penalty corners.”
