Malaysia look a tired and lost lot

02/12/2001

Malaysia 1 Argentina 1
MALAYSIA looked a little rusty in their first friendly match against
Argentina at the Kuala lumpur Hockey Stadium last night.
In fact, there was little resemblance of a team that has been training
since August because the players looked tired and lost for ideas while the
Argentinian side took their time and played at half pace.
The first 10 minutes of the match saw Malaysia having the lion's share
of the ball but when they reached the Argentinian semicircle, Chua Boon
Huat, Jiwa Mohan and K.Keevan Raj looked like they were afraid of taking a
shot at the goalmouth and in the process lost the ball easily.
Jiwa Mohan was all alone in the semicicle and only had the goalkeeper to
beat in the 15th minute after receiving a pass from Chairil Anwar, but he
hesitated a good five seconds and was robbed of the ball.
National chief coach Paul Lissek immediately replaced him with S.Shanker
who played a more composed game.
In the 20th minute Lissek replaced a tired looking S.Kuhan with Shaiful
Azli and K.Logan Raj with K.Gobinathan. The national team played a little
better after that but still there was no urgency in their game plan.
The score at halftime was 0-0 not because Malaysia defended well but
because Argentina were hardly in the game.
In the absence of Mirnawan Nawawi, who tore a muscle in the right calf
while training early in the week, Malaysia did not have enough bite
upfront to trouble the stocky Argentinian defenders.
The second half drama was even worse than the first half as the
Malaysian forwards looked reluctant to score when they were presented with
golden opportunities. In the 60th minute, the Malaysian sob story took a
turn for the worse when Chua came face to face with Argentinian goalkeeper
and had two clear choices.
He was all alone on top of the semicircle and could have either taken a
shot at goal or beat the onrushing goalkeeper. To the amazement of the
crowd at the KLHA stadium, Chua made a 360-degree turn and passed the ball
to S.Shanker who took a weak shot which missed by a mile.
In short, the entire team looked rusty and lacked confidence to make
quick decisions until the final five minutes of the match.
Marco Riccdi sounded the board in the 60th minute with a low flick but a
minute later Logan Raj scored a field goal to level the score.
jugjet@nstp.com.my
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