Malaysia meet favourites

21/02/2002

THE national hockey players will meet Germany in a friendly match today,
and the score does not matter - what matters is that they learn a friendly
lesson from the team tipped to lift the World Cup title.
The Germans have had three different stages during their preparation for
the World Cup.
First stop was Leipzig (Jan 8-10), then the team visited Champions
Challenge finalist South Africa fron Jan 15-23 and played five Test
matches. Germany won four and drew one.
Their second last stop was Barcelona where Germany played twice against
hosts Spain, World Cup finalists in 1998, and won both the matches. In
their last stop in Kuantan they lost 3-1 in a friendly match against World
Cup champions Holland.
Today, the Germans will meet the hosts and things could get a little
unpleasant.
After coach Bernhard Peters took over the reigns from Paul Lissek,
Germany won 34 of the 36 matches against some of the best hockey teams in
the world.
They won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and the Champions Trophy in
Rotterdam. They suffered only two defeats, against India in Feb 2001 and
Holland in Oct 2001.
With this successful run, Germany are surely one of the favourites for
the World Cup title in Kuala Lumpur and Bernhard agreed: "Germany has a
good chance to win the title for the first time."
Malaysia, under Lissek, have started playing like the Germans - but they
are still struggling to continue playing like the Germans for the entire
70 minutes.
Lapses in concentration which led to silly goals were evident for all to
see during the Champions Challenge and the Six-Nation. And one can bet his
bottom dollar that that is what the Germans will pounce on during the
friendly today.
But an even bigger problem with Malaysia is that they tend to do the
opposite of what the Germans do - they gladly take risks with daring
passes in their own semicircle but rarely make any daring moves in the
opponent's semicircle.
Also, thir gameplan of defending with ball possession in the first half
and attacking fiercely in the second half is by now well-known among all
the teams in Group B.
The national side have mastered the basics, no doubt about that, because
their square passes are excellent and holding the ball for long periods
while planning an attack is not a problem, but once they enter the
semicircle, discipline flies out the window and silly passes are easily
intercepted by the opposition.
Lissek has taught the Malaysian team the German system well, but today
they will receive a first hand lesson from those who grew up with the
system - and thank god Lissek is not around to watch them play because the
veins in his neck will definitely pop if the national side shame him in
front of his former team.
jugjet@nstp.com.my
(END)