Malaysia are still there

27/02/2002

MALAYSIA scraped through by the skin of their teeth, but what the heck,
when Chairil Anwar turned in the only goal of the match, they secured
three important points against Japan in a heart-stopping match at the
National Hockey Stadium last night.
The final minute of the match was filled with tension when Japan won a
penalty corner and the umpire awarded three more consecutive ones,
eventhough the match was officially over.
There were 10 Japanese players in the Malaysian semicircle and they kept
winning penalty corners but in the end, Malaysia triumphed and coach Paul
Lissek summed up the match when he said: "This is a very difficult job and
I almost had a heart-attack."
The same was probably felt by the 8,000-odd fans as well. Malaysia
played better yesterday compared to the first match against Australia
simply because they were more adventurous.
They attacked from the start and pinned the Japanese in their own
semicircle for long periods and the defenders had very little to do
because the match was played in the Japanese half more.
Though they created more chances, their finishing was still wanting and
there was no one who was brave enough to make a solo attempt at goal. They
always relied on numbers and this meant more backpasses than forward when
the situation became tricky.
Malaysia won only three penalty corners in the entire match and were
wasted as S. Kuhan was not up to the mark and the ball never got a chance
to leave his stick.
There were a handful of anxious moments when the speedy Japanese
capitalised on counter attacks but goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin had able
and capable Maninderjit Singh and Nor Azlan Bakar to keep a clean slate.
In the 15th minute Fairuz Ramli got a good look at the Japanese
goalmouth but goalkeeper Jun Takahashi made a diving save and the Japanese
section of the crowd heaved a loud sigh of relief.
The only nasty moment of the game was in the 16th minute when S. Shanker
came in as a substitute and immediately hit Atsushi Takehara on the face
with his stick. Takehara was stretchered out and Shanker was sent to the
sin bin.
That was the moment when Japan could have drawn first blood because they
attacked in droves but stout defending made sure that Malaysia ended the
match with three important points.
Before that in the 28th minute, Kuhan took a free hit from the top of
the semicircle and there were easily eight Japanese players and nine
Malaysians in the semicircle.
There was much shoving and pushing going on but Chairil found some space
to connect a thundering Kuhan pass into the top of the goalmouth.
"I am happy with the three points but not with the way the Malaysian
players played because they were not very clever in their approach.
"There were numerous occasions that could have been pounced upon to
increase the lead, they failed because they were not adventures enough.
Maybe when they start using their brains more and stop running with the
ball all the time, Malaysia can play better," said Lissek.
Japanese manager Toichi Nagai said his team was unnerved by the crowd
support for the Malaysians.
"There was a lot of support for them, but the Malaysian defence was also
tough and prevented us from scoring. It looks as if the newspaper article
this morning had a good effect on the Malaysian team," he said.
Timesport had carried a report urging the Malaysian team to win for King
and country or to withdraw from the tournament if they lost to Japan.
On the match against India today, Paul Lissek rated it as a test of
character because India have only one point to show from two matches.
"But my boys love to play against Malaysia because they know the team
very well, they know the style of every player in the Indian side and it
will be an interesting encounter," said Lissek.
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
GROUP B
SOUTH KOREA 2 INDIA 1
Yeo Woon Kon (20th) Jugraj Singh (69th)
Song Seung Tae (65th)
MALAYSIA 1 JAPAN 0
Chairil Anwar (28th)
AUSTRALIA 1 ENGLAND 0
Bevan George (53rd)
POLAND 4 CUBA 1
Tomasz Choczaj (16th) Yuneil Hernandez (5th)
Robert Grzeszczak (47th)
Artur Mikula (58th)
Slawomir Choczaj (69th)
(END)