Mas women lose to Canada

01/05/08


THE Malaysian women’s hockey team suffered their third straight defeat in the Olympic Qualifiers, when they were edged 1-0 by Canada in Vancouver on Wednesday.
South Korea and Ireland remained on course to meet in the final when they beat Italy 5-0 and Uruguay 1-0 respec tively.
Canada, looking to rebound from their two defeats, against Italy and Ireland, were encouraged by the local crowd, courageously filling the stands despite the cold wind, and controlled the opening stages.
Malaysia stayed composed and weathered the initial Cana dian push, then started to take more chances up field and forced veteran Canadian keeper Sarah Forbes into action. Canada tried hard, did most of the running and gave plenty of chances to the local fans to shout their hope, but the match went into the break scoreless.
Canada finally opened their tally in the 38th minute when Katie Rushton collected a ball lost by the Malaysian defense and slotted it out of reach of goalkeeper Ernawati Mah mud.
While the crowd was expecting Canada to immediately take advantage of their lead, it was Malaysia who then had the next scoring chances with a well taken penalty-corner and a shot from the top of the circle that was barely saved by Sarah.
But Canada held onto the slim lead, and now have a chance for playing in the bronze medal match.
RESULTS -- Malaysia 0 Canada 1, South Korea 5 Italy 0, Ireland 1 Uruguay 0.
TODAY: Malaysia v Italy, South Korea v Ireland, Canada v Uruguay.