Semis dream in tatters

02/03/2002

MALAYSIA had everything going their way, and cheered on by a capacity
18,000 crowd, they threw everything they had at South Korea. But two
mistakes in the first half was all that it took to destroy a dream and
break thousands of Malaysian hearts.
Now with this defeat, Malaysia are virtually out of the semi-finals, and
yet again left with the task of scrambling for a respectable placing.
But, for moments in this dramatic match, there looked like a Malaysian
revival, and a dream taking shape. For, it had all the elements required
for an emotional ending.
The LRT brought the success-starved Malaysians to the stadium in droves,
and the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil was already filled to the
brim. Even as the first whistle was blown, the queue at the ticketing
counter was still growing.
In the end, eventhough there was hardly any elbow space left, some of
the fans were allowed in and they stood at the railings cheering the
Malaysian players.
A deafening cheer greeted the teams as they trooped on to the pitch, but
it were the Koreans who started the match on a perfect footing.
The Sydney Olympics silver medallists scored two swift goals in a spate
of five minutes to silence the capacity crowd with the first coming in the
15th minute through skipper Kang Keong Wook.
The Malaysian defence was napping as after a breath-taking move by
Korea. Kang found himself facing keeper Roslan Jamaluddin and sent in a
crashing shot.
Malaysia responded well with several attacks but another counter attack
in the 20th minute left them gasping again.
This time the scorer was Hwang Jong-hyun. Hwang's goal was identical to
the one his skipper scored and as it went crashing into the net, there was
a sinking feeling that Malaysia were in for a drubbing.
And then Korea were reduced to 10-men when Kim Chul was sent to the sin
bin for robust play.
Malaysia kept up the pressure and were rewarded in the 22nd minute when
S. Kuhan, having missed an earlier penalty corner, flicked past the Korean
keeper and Malaysia were back in the match.
But then K. Gobinathan was sent to the sin bin in the 29th minute and
Korea, awarded a penalty corner, converted through Yeo Woon Kon.
As the buzzer sounded for the break, Malaysia knew they had an uphill
task ahead of them.
Malaysia re-started the match with defensive play, passing from left to
right more than forward, and the unsporting Malaysian crowd started booing
and urging them to salvage the match.
The pillar in the Malaysian defence Nor Azlan Bakar was benched for the
entire match as he was nursing a stiff calf muscle, and in his absence,
Maninderjit Singh had to keep changing partners and this disrupted the
free flow in the normally stout Malaysian defence.
By the 50th minute, Malaysia started making some moves into the Korean
semicircle, but poor finishing kept the score in Korea's favour.
In the 53rd minute, Maninderjit Singh's free hit from the top of the
Korean semicircle resulted in a penalty corner and the 18,000 capacity
crowd went wild looking for blood.
The stopper S. Shanker failed to trap the ball properly but Malaysia
fought back and won another penalty corner.
This time, Kuhan flicked into the top of the net in the 53rd minute and
Malaysia were back in the match.
And after that, surprisingly, Korea started defending their slim lead
and the Malaysian players took this opportunity to pin them in their own
semircle, but the Korean discipline and fantastic stopping frustrated the
players and fans as well.
With six minutes left on the giant screen, S. Shanker's shot from the
top of the semicircle was heading in the right direction, but a Korean
defender made a death-defying save and a goalscoring opportunity went up
in smoke.
Malaysia threw everthing into the match and with 12 seconds remaining on
the clock, a nerve-wrecking free hit was won as a Korean player was sent
to the sin bin.
But it was too late to salvage the match and Korea scraped through with
precious three points.
As for Malaysian hockey, the "Ghosts of 1975" - the team that finished
fourth in that World Cup in Kuala Lumpur - will still be haunting them for at least another four years.
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
GROUP B
MALAYSIA ................... 2 SOUTH KOREA ............. 3
S. Kuhan (23rd, 53rd) Kang Keon Wook (15th)
Hwang Jong Hyun (21st)
Yeo Woon Kon (29th)
AUSTRALIA .................. 6 CUBA .................... 0
Jamie Dwyer (3rd)
Craig Victory (15th, 39th)
Paul Gaudoin (41st)
Michael McCann (66th)
Matthew Smith (70th)
ENGLAND .................... 3 INDIA ................... 2
Danny Hall (11th, 46th) Dilip Tirkey (45th)
Tom Bertram (53rd) Baljit Singh Dhillon (56th)
JAPAN ...................... 2 POLAND .................. 1
Naohiko Tobita (63rd, penalty) Artur Mikula (45th)
Kenichi Katayama (70th)
(END)