Malaysia's best still not good enough

23/03/2003

SOUTH Korea dashed a Malaysian dream yesterday when they won 2-0 in the
Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh yesterday.
Malaysia put up one of their best performances to date, but umpire
Gerald Curran disallowed three clear goals to rob the hosts of an outright
victory.
The umpire, via an earphone, was in contact with FIH officials who
monitored his performance, complete with playback, on a television screen,
but he still refused to give the hosts what they deserved.
Defender Wan Asyrizal made his debut in the international scene
yesterday, and he stood shoulder to shoulder with skipper S. Kuhan.
Malaysian defenders, Wan, Kuhan and Nor Azlan Bakar did an excellent job
of keeping the South Koreans outside the semi-circle, but the forwards
lacked bite with Chua Boon Huat missing out on several goal-scoring
opportunity.
The men in yellow were oozing with confidence yesterday and hardly made
any back-passes, which is their normal pattern when under attack.
For every Korean with the ball, three Malaysian players lunged forward
to win it back and the 1,000-odd crowd thoroughly enjoyed themselves. More
than half the crowd were students who wore either red (colour of Korea) or
yellow and their cheers motivated the national team to play above their
normal self.
Malaysia received their first penalty corner in the 25th minute and
Kuhan's thundering flick was barely palmed away by South Korean goalkeeper
Yoon Kim.
The Koreans only penetrated the Malaysian semi-circle about 10 times in
the first 35 minutes and as the clocked ticked by, the Asian Games
champions became more desperate and made many unforced errors.
P. Prabahkaran was among the most hard-working players on the pitch
yesterday and he signaled his comeback, after his performance took a
nosedive last year, with deft passes and intelligent play.
In the second half, Malaysia came out firing from all cylinders.
The match became robust in the 50th minute and a Korean striker took a
bad hit in the process and had to be stretchered out, but he received a
double whammy when the stretcher barriers could not carry his weight and
he fell onto the artificial pitch.
The crowd had a good laugh at the Korean's expense but minutes upon
resumption, the Koreans silenced everyone at the Stadium with a superb
goal. Receiving the ball from the flag post, Hwang Seung Sun met the ball
and beat Kumar after a goalmouth melee.
Malaysia refused to be broken and pushed forward but more heartbreaking
news greeted them, as umpire Gerald Curran did not recognise the three
quick goals that they scored.
In the first, the umpire claimed that the shot was taken from outside
the semi-circle and only touched the Korean goalkeeper before going in.
The second goal was disallowed because, according to Curran, the ball went
out the goal line before being pushed into goal. And the third, instead of
giving Chua Boon Huat the benefit of the doubt, the umpire blew for a
penalty corner about five seconds after Chua scored.
While Malaysia were busy finding the eqaliser, the Koreans mounted a
swift counter-attack in the 65th minute and sealed the three points when
Seo Jung Ho sounded the board.
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
PAKISTAN 6 NEW ZEALAND 1
Kashif Jawad (4th, 60th) Hayden Shaw (29th)
Mohamed Saqlain (20th)
Shabbir Hussain (41st)
Sohail Abbas (50th)
Rehan Butt (54th)
MALAYSIA 0 SOUTH KOREA 2
Hwang Seung Sun (55th)
Seo Jong Ho (65th)
(END)