Malaysia go down fighting

06/04/1999

MALAYSIA 3 GERMANY 4
MALAYSIA lost their third match of the Azlan Shah Cup tournament against
Germany yesterday, but their determination won the hearts of many fans at
the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
Although still bogged down by poor passing and loss of concentration in
the last 15 minutes of the match, they showed what they are capable of
when they work as a team.
Right after the first whistle, S. Kuhan flicked to an unmarked Mirnawan
Nawawi who made a through pass to Saiful Azli on the left.
To the amazement of the crowd, Saiful fended off three defenders on the
goal-line and made a pass to Chairil Anwar for the fastest goal of the
tournament. Forty-five seconds flat and Malaysia were in the lead to the
chagrin of German goalkeeper Christian Schulte, who stood wondering what
went wrong.
Three minutes later, Suhaimi Ibrahim should have increased the lead when
he found himself face-to-face with Schulte. But his weak push let Germany
off the hook.
Man-to-man marking by the Malaysians made it a tight game. The team
looked more committed and fresh than they were when they lost 4-1 to New
Zealand and 2-1 to Canada.
After 15 minutes, the Germans were still unable to make a damaging move
in the Malaysian semicircle. Chua Boon Huat was then brought in for
Mirnawan. He took the armband and skippered the side for next 15 minutes.
In the 20th minute, the inevitable happened when Nor Azlan Bakar's
square pass to the right was intercepted by a German player.
Christian Wein punished Azlan dearly by snatching a soft equaliser. The
German side finally woke up from their slumber and in a two-minute blitz,
made the score 3-1.
First, Bjorn Wein tapped in a penalty corner goal in the 25th before
Stefan Saliger led a charging sortie two minutes later to push in the
third goal. A minute from the breather, Malaysia won their first penalty
corner of the match off a Kuhan attempt.
Suhaimi made up for his earlier miss when he tapped in a ball which
lingered on the goal-line for about 30 seconds while players from both
teams were locked in a melee.
At halftime, the score had narrowed down to 2-3.
After the breather, Germany found the going harder when Christian
Mayerhofer was sent to the sinbin for a bad tackle on Chairil Anwar.
Two minutes later, Chairil won Malaysia a penalty flick when his
stinging shot hit the body of a German player.
Kuhan stepped up to push in the equaliser in the 45th minute.
The thundering beat of the Fan Club kompang group, coupled with staunch
support from about 500 Pakistan supporters who stayed back after watching
the earlier match, heated up the atmosphere to the Malaysian advantage.
In the 55th minute, the Germans won a penalty corner and this time it
was Nor Azlan who saved the day but he gave away a long corner. Bjorn
Michael connected a good pass from the left to make the score 4-3.
MALAYSIA: Roslan Jamaluddin, Maninderjit Singh, Chua Boon Huat, Jiwa
Mohan, S. Kuhan, Indra Hadi, Madzli Ikmar, Suhaimi Ibrahim, M. Kaliswaran,
K. Keevan Raj, Mirnawan Nawawi, K. Logan Raj, Saiful Azli, Nasihin Nubli.
GERMANY: Christian Schulte, Arnold Clements, Jan Peter Tewes, Max Klink,
Stefan Saliger, Bjorn Michel, Sascha Reinett, Christian Kurtz, Christoph
Eimer, Bjorn Emmerling, Christian Wein, Michael Green, Tibor Weibenborn,
Christian Mayerhofer, Frank Gemming, Tobias Henschel.
(END)