USIU out to bounce back against Chase Sailors

The United States International University (USIU) men’s hockey team will seek to bounce back after opening their season with a 3-2 defeat to Parklands Sports Club on Sunday.

The students, who finished seventh last term, will feature in the Kenya Hockey Union’s only midweek fixture as they play newly promoted outfit Chase Sailors on Wednesday.

USIU head coach Tom Olal said losing the first match is not the ideal way they wanted to begin the new campaign in which they are bidding to better last season’s rank.

“Losing our first match has put us in a very delicate situation but I am confident that we will give good account of ourselves tomorrow as we strive not to lose any other match,” Olal said.

Olal has however admitted that his change in the system of play might have haunted them as he promised to revert to his preferred formation of 4-2-2.

“We used a new system in that match (against Parklands) and although I won’t say that it did not work, I believe it needs time and thus we will be going back to our preferred system,” added the veteran coach.

With Sailors making a comeback to the top tier league after spending last season in the second-division league, Olal is wary of the threat posed by the Super League champions.

“Chase is a team promoted back to the premier league and we will take the game the way it comes and key to us is to play a good game and win,” added Olal.

On his side Chase Sailors coach Timothy Kamar is upbeat his team has learnt a lot in the Super League as his excited for the new challenge that beckons.

“It is going to be an interesting game since we are going to face an experienced side in USIU and basically we will go there and try to play our game and see what happens. We are also eager to learn from the experienced sides in the league as the season unfolds,” Kamar observed.

The match is slated to kick off 6pm at the City Park.