Malaysia blow golden chance

MALAYSIA paid a heavy price for not fielding their two top strikers when they were edged 2-1 by Australia in the inaugural Sultan of Johor Cup at the Taman Daya Stadium in Johor Baru last night.
The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) had decided to rest Faisal Saari and Firhan Ashaari from the Johor tournament, as they are being primed for the Champions Challenge I by national coach Tai Beng Hai, and the juniors team were toothless in their opening match in Johor.
Australia were far from imnpressive, but still won 2-1 -- both were goals gifted on a platter by the Malaysian defenders.
Malaysia should have been 3-0 up by the 10th minute, but two silly clearances at the back resulted in Australia taking a 1-0 lead into the dressing room, instead.
After three early good looks at the Australian goalmouth, with the forwards missing a beat in the final touch, Shazrul Imran gave away a penalty corner which was turned into a penalty stroke by the Aussies.
And William Shaw made sure with a flick from the spot in the 22nd minute and the national team went back to the drawing board for 10 minutes to plot the second half.
However, another silly mistake from Malaysian skipper Noor Faeez Ibrahim in the 57th minute, sealed their fate in the opening clash.
The captain's poor clearance was intercepted with ease, and this time Josh Walters scored the gift goal with ease.
Malaysia won three consecutive penalty corners after the 70th minute hooter blew, and finally Noor Faeez sounded the board.
In the other matches, Pakistan and India suffered contrasting defeats, against New Zealand and South Korea respectively.
And while Pakistan fell to an early goal and lost 1-0 to the Kiwis, India held a 4-0 lead into the half-time before crumbling to a 6-4 defeat.
It was a remarkable comeback by the Koreans, while India were left wondering what hit them in the second half where they failed to find a single goal despite creating many chances.
"The boys were overconfident in the second half and paid the price for it. While Korea defended poorly early in the game, we did the same in the second half and once Korea were on level terms, my players body language said it all -- they just gave up," said Indian coach Mukesh Kumar.
"It was only in the last ten minutes that we tried coming back into the match but it was a little too late. It was a good lesson for the boys though as one should never take the outcome of a match as granted though leading by four goals."
India took a 4-0 lead off Kumar Mylaram (fourth), Malek Singh (16th, 29th), Talwinder Singh (31st).
But that was asa far as they got, as Korea hit a sixer in the second half off Yang Ji Hun (39th, 48th, 56th, 59th), Yoon Dong Hyeon (41st),Yoon Dong Hyeon (41st).
The New Zealand winner was scored by skipper Ross Nicholas in the seventh minute off a penalty stroke and Pakistan never recovered after that early goal.
RSULTS: South Korea 6 India 4, New Zealand 1 Pakistan 0, Australia 2 Malaysia 0.
SUNDAY: South Korea v Pakistan (4pm), Australia v India (6pm), Malaysia v New Zealand (8pm).
TUESDAY: New Zealand v Australia (4pm), Malaysia v South Korea (6pm), Pakistan v India (8pm).
WEDNESDAY: South Korea v Australia (4pm), India v New Zealand (6pm), Pakistan v Malaysia (8pm).
FRIDAY: Australia v Pakistan (4pm), New Zealand v South Korea (6pm), India v Malaysia (8pm).

P W D L F A Pts
S KOREA 1 1 0 0 6 4 3
AUSTRALIA 1 1 0 0 2 1 3
N ZEALAND 1 1 0 0 1 0 3
MALAYSIA 1 0 0 1 1 2 0
PAKISTAN 1 0 0 1 0 1 0
INDIA 1 0 0 1 4 6 0