Just another false dawn

06/03/2002

MALAYSIA may yet finish fifth in the World Cup but they showed, yet again,
last night that other than a false dawn, there is nothing much in
Malaysian hockey.
If they had a narrow escape against Cuba on Monday, they scraped through
by the skin of their teeth against Poland last night in the 2-2 draw which
brought their Group B campaign to an end.
It was a thoroughly disappointing outing by Malaysia and if this is the
best they can do, a eighth place finish is what they are looking at.
Despite England's stunning 2-0 win over South Korea, the odds were
heavily stacked against Malaysia and they were not shortened as the
national team simply didn't look as motivated as they should have been.
While no one logically thought that Malaysia would beat Poland by the
desired nine clear goals, what the 10,000 odd fans would have expected is
a fighting performance.
But Malaysia didn't look like they were up to the challenge, even after
Jiwa Mohan scored from an indirect penalty corner in the eighth.
If anything, Poland, who came for the World Cup with only 17 of the 18
allowed players, looked to be more motivated.
While Malaysia dominated, Poland only needed five minutes to equalise
through their first penalty corner and keeper Jamaluddin Roslan was guilty
of conceding a soft goal as he let slip Eugeniusz Gaczkowski's shot
through his pads.
Malaysia's odds has just been lenghtened and the players knew it as an
air of despondency seemed to surround their game.
They continued pressing but more often than not, were reduced to
appealing for penalty corners when in the penalty area as they seemed
hesitant to take risks.
And when the buzzer went for the break, Malaysia looked anything but the
top eight position they had ensured themselves in the tournament.
The crowd, who had to be satisfied with just that one goal in the first
half, were still not ignited after the Malaysians came back on after the
pep talk.
Except for back-to-back Malaysian penalty corners in the 38th minute,
which were wasted, it was Poland who looked hungrier for goals.
And they were justly rewarded in the 46th minute when Gaczkowski,
following a second successive penalty corner, dummied and slotted past a
clueless Jamaluddin.
Malaysia were also clueless upfront for it still didn't seem to strike
the players that even if a place in the semifinals was beyond reach,
finishing the preliminary round with a win would still be worth a lot.
Instead, Malaysia were fortunate not to trail by a bigger margin as
Zbigniew Juszczak had the ball in the net in the 55th minute. But it was
disallowed.
But there was to be an equaliser for Malaysia and it came off a penalty
corner as S. Kuhan scored following several exchanges.
The crowd cheered, but the gut feeling was that Malaysia had let them
down and have to make it up to convey the impression that what they have
done in the World Cup isn't merely another false dawn.
After the match, Malaysian coach Paul Lissek, talked about his team's
next target.
"Now that the pool matches are over, our target is to finish on top in
the classification matches. We would rather play Pakistan than Argentina,
because we have a better chance finishing fifth."
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
GROUP A
GERMANY .................... 3 PAKISTAN ...................... 2
Sascha Reinelt (20th) Sohail Abbas (35th, 38th)
Florian Kunz (24th, 49th)
NETHERLANDS ................ 3 SOUTH AFRICA .................. 0
Teun de Nooijer (10th)
Karel Klaver (29th)
Piet Hein Geeris (41th)
NEW ZEALAND ................ 4 BELGIUM ....................... 3
Hayden Shaw (24th, 41st, 62nd) Vitali Kholopov (30th)
Umesh Parag (64th) Loic Vandeweghe (67th, 70th)
ARGENTINA .................. 3 SPAIN ......................... 1
Mario Almada (15th, 34th) Albert Sala (24th)
Rodrigo Vila (26th)
GROUP B
MALAYSIA ................... 2 POLAND ........................ 2
Jiwa Mohan (8th) Eugeniusz Gaczkowski (12th, 46th)
S.Kuhan (62nd)
AUSTRALIA .................. 4 INDIA ......................... 3
Craig Victory (42nd) Jugraj Singh (25th)
Jeremy Hiskins (51st, penalty) Daljit Singh (45th)
Brent Livermore (59th) Prabjot Singh (67th)
Matthew Smith (63rd)
ENGLAND .................... 2 SOUTH KOREA ................... 0
Dave Matthews (31st, 33rd)
JAPAN ...................... 4 CUBA .......................... 2
Takahiko Yamahori (25th,64th) Alain Bardaji Lopez (19th)
Akira Takahashi (33rd) Jose Rodriguez Garcia (30)
Makoto Karuo (62nd)
(END)