MUSCAT, Dec 7 - Oman thrashed Hong Kong 7-0 in their opening match of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) Junior Cup hosted by the Oman Hockey Association (OHA) at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat on Thursday. In the first match of the December 5-14 tournament, which is a qualifying event for the Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2020, Thailand and Iran drew 1-1 in Pool A. In the next match of same group, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan settled for a 2-2 draw. In a one-sided match at the SQSC hockey turf, which hosted the Asian Champions Trophy 2018, the hosts completely dominated the proceedings against Hong Kong.
Aliyas al Noufali opened the scoring for Oman in second minute through a field goal. Fahad al Lawati slammed a field goal hat-trick (17th, 33rd and 47th minutes) while Rashad al Fazari scored a brace (penalty corner in the 5th minute and field goal in 36th) and Ali al Owaisi completed the 7-0 margin through a penalty corner in the 58th minute for the Sultanate junior stars.
With the big win, Oman are on top of the Pool B with three points.
Chinese Taipei, Singapore and Hong Kong are the other teams in the Pool.
Oman will next meet Singapore on Sunday at 8 pm.
On Friday, China claimed three points from their first match in Pool A after defeating Iran by 3-1 in a game that exploded during the second half. The Chinese secured the victory in the final 10 minutes when they scored the last two goals.
Meanwhile, in Pool B, Chinese Taipei turned around a match that was losing against Singapore in the first half by 0-1. The Chinese Taipei surprised their opponent during the second half with two goals, winning the game by 2-1 placing them in second place in the table with three points.
On Saturday, Uzbekistan beat Thailand 3-1 to post their first win and claim the top spot of Pool B with 4 points.
China, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Iran and Thailand form the Pool A.
A total of 23 matches are being played at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex from December 5 to 14.
This year the competition format will consist of 9 teams participating and the preliminary round will be played in a two-pool format, which will be followed by crossover and classification matches. The top four teams from this tournament will qualify for the Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2020 and will join the teams of Bangladesh, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Pakistan who are already qualified. Also, the Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2020 is a qualifier round for the Hockey Junior World Cup 2021.
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