Only a 3-0 win against Singapore

By Ajitpal Singh

THE national hockey team had 16 opportunities, including eight penalty corner attempts, but the Stephen Van Huizen men managed only a 3-0 win over minnows Singapore in their opening Group A match at the Aoti Hockey Stadium.
The team started impressively, taking only seven minutes to sound the board through Hafifihafiz Hanafi’s open play attempt.
The Malaysian fans then must have thought they would be treated with a goal spree after an early goal but it was not to be.
After many attempts, Azlan Misron scored, off a brilliant pass from Baljit Singh Charun, in the 33rd minute before Razie Rahim added the third off a penalty corner set-piece, two minutes later.
In the second half, Malaysia were denied several more opportunities. However, credit must be given to Singapore goalkeeper and captain Ng Wai Chiang, who made several splendid saves to deny Malaysia more goals.
Van Huizen said he was happy with the three points but not the manner his boys won it.
“What’s important is the three points. However, I’m not happy with the way we missed so many sitters,” said van Huizen at the Aoti Hockey Stadium yesterday.
“Anyway, we have another three days to re-group for the next match against South Korea. We need to analyze our game comprehensively to do our best in it.
Malaysia face Korea on Thursday and Oman, on the next day. The team complete their group fixtures against hosts China on Sunday.
RESULTS: Group A -- Malaysia 3 Singapore 0, China 7 Oman 0.
Group B: India 7 Hong Kong 0, Japan 3 Bangladesh 1.
Group A: Malaysia 3 (Hafifihafiz Hanafi 7, Azlan Misron 33, Abd Rahim 35) Singapore 0 H-t: 3-0.
Group B: India 7 (Bharat Kumar 2, Sandeep Singh 4, 18, Sarvanjit Singh 22, Tushar Khandekar 37, Arjun Halappa 38, Shivendra Singh 48) Hong Kong 0 H-t: 4-0.
Group B: Japan 3 (Takahiko Yamabori 47, Katsuyoshi Nagasawa 56, Kazuyuki Ozawa 69) Bangladesh 1 (Krishno Kumir 9) H-t: 0-1.