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International : Europe : Malta

Malta: More Of The Same As Rabat Depiro Snatch Super Cup.

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HAM

October 13, 2004

Henry Cachia
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- Challenge Cup Gets Under Way On Sunday

The hockey season 2004/05 got underway on Sunday with the Super Cup final between Rabat Depiro and Floriana Young Stars. While Young Stars were without the suspended Chris Attard and injured David Evans, Rabat where at full strength including new signings Branko Radojevic and Reno Cremona.

As expected the game was a balanced affair with both sides having their good moments and scoring chances. All in all Young Stars could consider themselves unlucky to find themselves once again on the losing side. In the second half they missed three incredible chances that should have given them victory. Edward Hughes on two occasions and Rudolph Camilleri somehow hit wide when they were put through in front of goal. The Floriana side were made to pay when barely five minutes into the first half of extra time, a fast break set up Rene Antonelli for the all-important golden goal. For Rabat this was their sixth Super Cup victory; their third in a row.

A final word on the umpires. Most of the players may not agree but on Sunday the umpires was quite good with both umpires taking a tough stand against repeated appealing and, as the game progressed, a number of tough tackles. One hopes that this is not just a one off and the standard remains uniform through out the season.

The season continues on Sunday with the start of the Challenge Cup. The five senior teams have been dived into two groups with Rabat Depiro, White Hart and Qormi in Group A; and Sliema Hs and Floriana YS in Group B. Sliema and Young Stars will play each other twice to decide who goes directly to the semi-finals. The loser of this two-legged tie will then play against the third placed team in Group A to determine the fourth semi-finalist. The winners and runners-up in Group A move forward to the semi-finals.

On Sunday, besides the first leg of the Sliema � Young Stars tie, which starts at 11.00am, Qormi will play White Hart at 9.00am.

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Comments on this article

Robert Aquilina 10-14-2004��2:33 am	Report this post
`Umpires Henry, with all due respect to you and whoever gave you the information, but what you wrote about umpiring control is a load of bull....t`

Henry Cachia 10-14-2004��8:11 am	Report this post
`Umpires I had no doubt of what your opinion would be but I will not comment further. CU.`

Robert Aquilina 10-14-2004��12:28 pm	Report this post
`Henry I didn't have the flimsiest of hopes that you would have further comments to make.`

Truth 10-14-2004��12:36 pm	Report this post
`Umpires If Imbroll wer to umpires a Sliema game they will end up with no players on the pitch, it would be a spectackle to watch!`

hockeystar 10-14-2004��2:52 pm	Report this post
`less talk more action I would like to see more supporters at games. Why not bring some cheerleaders?`

bazzu 10-15-2004��9:22 am	Report this post
`hockey star yes bring you wife!`

Robert Aquilina
10-15-2004��11:41 am Report this post

Super Cup Final - Umpires I will clarify my previous comment regarding the Umpiring control of the Super Cup Final, not to be misunderstood. The game was typical game for our standards, and there was nothing extraordinary. The only factor that wasn't normal was that 10 yellow cards were shown, and in my opinion, both teams were treated equally. However just because teams were treated equally, does not mean that the control by the Umpires was good. In my opinion, the above average (to put it mildly) of cards shown was excessive and it only made up for the poor communication of the Umpires. Cards are a tool and they have to be used intelligently, for the benefit of the game, and they are not the only tool available! There are loads of ways to communicate properly every decision taken, including the whistle and most importantly the proper body language. Notwithstanding the above, I'm not saying that just because of the number of cards shown it is an automatic assumption that the control was poor, there can be cases where an Umpire has no alternative, but the game of last Sunday wasn't the case at all. When one has the opportunity (like I had) to attend seminars with top umpires from all over the world, the majority of the time is spent on communication and not wasting time discussing specific situations like we do here. I sincerely respect both the umpires of the game and after the match I even discussed the matter with Andre, and didn't have any intentions of making a fuss about it, except that I will bring the subject up in our next umpires meeting. The last thing I want is to discourage colleagues of mine from Umpiring. I rarely comment on umpiring issues on this site, but what irked me was that it was included in the weekly press release as if it was a form of impressive thing, which was definitely not � if the aim of Henry is to improve the image of Hockey, he should treat issues related to umpires more sensitively� and this is not for situations mentioned above only ... every now and then we see something like �the goal was hotly contested� � nothing wrong with that � but these has to be mentioned always and not conveniently. During the famous KO final replay we conceded a goal that we hotly contested � but didn�t have any mention of the fact! People who dedicate time to the Hockey Association such as Henry, Umpires, Officials and so on, are very important to our game, and my comments are not in any way lack of respect to them, but we have to call a spade a spade, if we want our game to flourish. Good day to all

hockeystar 10-16-2004��7:20 am	Report this post
`bazzu Get your woman also u naghmlu festa!`

hockeystar 10-16-2004��7:21 am	Report this post
`Young stars Unofficial site The site is not updated anymore?!! Ala?`

Update 10-18-2004��5:21 am	Report this post
`Young stars Unofficial site Please update the KO and Super Cup results.`

Xxxxx! 10-20-2004��7:47 am	Report this post
`Silence in Golden! ---`

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