SHELLO THE SILVER LINING

SHELLO THE FIELD MAN

 

Shello Silverius with his field goals has come to the rescue of the team when the penalty corners goals were  not coming for Malaysia and has become an added advantage to the team.

“In modern day hockey, penalty corners are highly relied for goals. But when sometimes the penalty corners goals are not coming, field goals help release the pressure on the team,” said national coach A. Arul Selvaraj.

“I am glad for this tournament, we had a fair share of field goals and penalty corners goals. When in the early matches, our penalty corner machinery was not finding the goals, the field goals saved the day for us.

“Then in the last two games when Razie Rahim starting converting the penalty corners, our field goals were also coming. This is indeed great.”

The 23-year-old Shello who hails from Keningau, who entered the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup with just a cap earned during the European tour recently, is now a regular feature in the team.

And to his credit he has scored four field goals - two goals against Egypt in Malaysia’s 4-1 victory, one goal against Pakistan 1-1 draw and one goal in the 7-2 victory over South Africa.

Malaysia’s other field goal scorers include Aiman Rozemi (2 goals) , Amirul Azahar (1 goal), Mohd Azrai Abu Kamal  (1  goal) and Norsyafiq Sumantri.

Arul said that several players in the team did not have caps coming to this tournament or only 1 or none, few more with a few caps and several who do not have much exposure.

“These are the unsung heroes in team here in Ipoh and they have indeed stepped up their performance to do well for the team especially we have several key and senior players missing here because of injury.”

The unsung heroes Arul listed out besides Shello, include Najib Hassan, Ashran Hamsani, Tengku Nasrul Ikmal, Mohd Azrai, Muhammad Hassan, Zulpidaus Mizun and Amirul Azahar.

Shello on the hand said he hopes to score in he final and hopeful wrest the Cup.

“But I am not going to be overly possessed to score because we play s a team and work for each other, It does not matter who scores so long as the team wins,” said Shello whose father is a farmer and his mother runs a coffee stall.

“I will definitely work hard to score to ease the pressure on the team, but anyone one of us can score.”

On his four goals so far, he said he has been at the right time and right place to score.

“I need to create space for myself, get into scoring positions too and at the same time wins ball and harass the opponents. At the end of the day, it is all about working hard and being committed,” said Shello who has two younger brothers aged  22 and 17 who follow his footsteps and play hockey.

Shello said they too want to follow his footsteps and make the national team.

Shello said that he has one other wish besides wanting to win the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, : “I hope one day my father and mother will be able to come and see me play with the national team. They have never even see me play in my State.”

 Ends.