Juniors are back at it

15/10/2001

By Jugjet Singh in Hobart

THE Malaysian juniors were back at what they do best at the TasmanianHockey Centre yesterday. Scotland were never in the match, but Malaysia made them look like asolid team with a pathetic display in the classification match of theJunior World Cup which ended in a 1-1 draw. Playing on Pitch B, Malaysia only won two penalty corners, one in eachhalf, and most of the time were happy to play with little imagination, andtheir stopping was atrocious. Scotland only had two clear chances in the entire first half but failedto score because they simply did not have any good forwards. Most of the first half was played in midfield and for the first sevenminutes the Malaysian juniors did not even manage to break into Scotland'ssemicircle because of poor passes. It was fitting that they played on the second pitch while India andArgentina displayed world class hockey on the main pitch. Twenty minutes into the match and still not a single shot was taken atgoal. Scotland goalkeeper Kris Kane must be as surprised as the 200-oddfans at the stands because Malaysia came with a reputation of having heldGermany to a 2-2 draw in the first round match. By the look of things yesterday, the draw was only a flash in the panand Malaysian hockey has hit an all-time low. The first half ended with Scotland looking the better team with somegood counterattacks while Malaysia were happy to have midfield possessionwith the ball moving from right to left and back again with no forwardplay. But two minutes into the second half, Mohamed Fairuz Ramli connected apass from K. Logan Raj on the left and scored. Malaysia started attacking after that with seven players upfront whilethree defended. Even skipper Chua Boon Huat, who played as a defender onthe first half, moved up in search of the second goal. In their eagerness to score more goals, they left the midfield wideopen. Most of the attacks were from the left of the field and notsuccessful. Scotland skipper Lawrence Doherty scored the easiest of goals when M.Jiwa, in trying to make a back pass to Chua, gave the ball away and allthe Scot had to do was beat Malaysia goalkeeper Mohamed Firdaus for theequaliser. With four minutes left on the clock, Scotland were the more dominatingside and won three penalty corners in succession. But their inability toeven stop the ball properly saved Malaysia from the humiliation offinishing their first classification matches without any points. "I fail to understand the boys anymore, after playing well againstGermany, they showed little imagination against Scotland. We are lucky tohave walked away with a point," said coach Yahya Atan. Malaysia next play South Africa tomorrow and by the looks of things,they are not even good for the ninth spot and might end up at the bottomof the table. But you'll never know what the erratic juniors will do next, so all bets are off.