Nurul Faezah Lift Uniten In Final

Kuala Lumpur (3 April 2021): Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) Ladies team paid a heavy price for missing a number of sitters and their unbeaten run came to abrupt end after they lost 1-0 against defending champions PKS Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten)-KPT in the final of the Vivian May Soars Cup tonight.

PKS Uniten, led by eight national players, lost 3-0 in the league match against UniKL.

Nurul Faezah Shafiqah Khalim scored the winning goal off a penalty corner in the 54th minute. It was her third goal in eight matches.

UniKL had 58 per cent of ball possession and Uniten 42 percent, earned five penalty corners against one by the defending champions, 10 shots at goal against five, and made 19 circle entries while the 2020 champions could only reply with eight.

Uniten coach Lailin Abu Hassan said they won because they used the right tactics for the final.

“We know what to expect in the final against UniKL and we kept a few of our secret weapons for the final, especially our penalty corner set piece.

“We just needed one penalty corner and it worked as we had Nurul Faezah, who is a specialist in slicing the ball into goal. It feels nice to retain the overall title as we are the first team in the league since 2015 to achieve it,” said Lailin.

UniKL coach Roslan Jamaluddin was disappointed that they wasted a golden chance of lifting their second title.

“We had more chances than Uniten but were let down by poor finishing. We also failed to convert from five penalty corners we earned in the match. PKS Uniten played with more determination in the first quarter and created more chances but they failed to find the net he added.

UniKL, who were under pressure in the first quarter, received a blow in the 12th minute as they lost the services of national forward Hanis Nadiah Onn who was stretched out due to an ankle injury.

Despite losing Hanis, UniKL put up a much better display in the second quarter and earned their first penalty corner in the 20th minute but failed

to capitalise on it. And five minutes later, UniKL received another penalty corner and Siti Noor Amarina Ruhani’s direct hit was saved by goalkeeper Mas Huzaimah Mat Isa.

After the breather UniKL played to their true form and came close to taking the lead in the 35th minute.

Tuan Nur Hidayah Tuan Ismail collected a through pass from the right and her hit from the top of the semi-circle went over the crossbar.

Four minutes later, UniKL earned another penalty but again they muffed the chance.

In the 40th minute, top scorer Nuramirah Shakirah Zulkifli was involced in a one-to-one situation against Mas Huzaimah but her hit from the left was well stopped by the keeper.

In the fourth quarter, Uniten were down to 10 players as forward Nur Zafirah Aziz was flashed a yellow card for a rough tackle.

Instead of UniKL taking the advantage and creating the chance to take the lead it was Uniten who earned their first penalty corner in the 54th minute.

Nurul Faezah sounded the board off a direct hit giving no chance for goalkeeper Siti Zaila Nasir to stop the ball. UniKL pushed all their forwards in search for the equaliser but Uniten defended well in numbers to win the final.

Nuramirah was the top scorer in the league with 10 goals.