Malaysia beat Germany 3-2

MALAYSIA came back from two-goals down to beat World Champions Germany 3-2 in the Sultan of Johor Cup at the Taman Daya Stadium yesterday.
  It was a match which not many had placed hoped on Malaysia collecting full points, but they surprised the 5,000-odd fans to turn the tables on Germany in a super second half-push.
  For the record, Germany won their fifth Junior World Cup title by beating Netherlands 3-1 at the same venue in 2009.
  Malaysia started off aggressively by winning four consecutive penalty corners but German first-runners and the upright stood in the path of skipper Noor Faeez Ibrahim.
  And by half-time, the crowd were almost silenced as Malaysia trooped into the dressing room being 2-0 down with goals from Tom Grambusch in the 18th minute off a penalty corner attempt, and a Moritz Tompertz field goal in the 23rd minute.
  Coach K. Dharmaraj must have given his charges a super half-time talk, as they came into the pitch with more passion than the first half.
  Malaysia started the fight-back in the 38th minute when Syamim Yusof squared the ball which everyone missed but not Amir Farid who sneaked in like a ghost to tap into an empty goal and it was game oin with Germany 2 Malaysia 1.
  And in the 49th minute Malaysia won their fifth penalty corner and the ball was relayed to Firhan Ashaari whose deflection hit Mathias Muller on the body.
  Umpire Kamran Sharif awarded a penalty stroke, which Faeez duly converted to put Malaysia on level terms.
  The hosts then set the Taman Daya pitch on fire and Ramadhan Rosli had the final say, when he scored in the 67th minute from an acute angle to give Malaysia this famous win.
  "During the half-time I told them to keep on playing attacking hockey and dont hold back even if Germany take a 10-0 lead. That is what did the trick for us today," said an elated K. Dharmaraj.
 Malaysian Hockey Confederataion (MHC) president Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, who watched the match yesterday met the players and told them to play like the second half for the remainder of the tournament, and the title is all theirs for the taking.
  And with Germany out of the way, Malaysia are in a much more better position now to defend their Sultan of Johor Cup gold medal.
  Meanwhile, in the first match of the day, Pakistan bungled a 3-0 lead to share the spoils with New Zealand.
  The Pakistan goals were scored by Muhammad Dilber (fourth, 30th) and Muhammad Irfan (16th).
  The Kiwis started the fight-back in the second half when Jared Panchia scored in the 50th minute and Benedict Van Woerkom made it 2-3 in the 56th minute, and Kane Russel slammed in the equaliser in the last minute of the match.
  In another match, a disciplined India held on well to an Australian first half onslaugth before winning 2-0.
  Both the teams trooped off the pitch at half-time after an even match, but second half goals from Sukhmanjit Singh (49th) and Tirkey Amon Misrah (70th) gave them the three points.
  RESULTS: New Zealand 3 Pakistan 3, Australia 0 India 2, Malaysia 3 Germany 2.
  Today: Australia v Pakistan (4pm), Germany v India (6pm), Malaysia v New Zealand (8pm).


STANDINGS

              P  W  D  L  F  A Pts
MALAYSIA      1  1  0  0  3  2  3
INDIA         1  1  0  0  2  0  3
PAKISTAN      1  0  1  0  3  3  1
N ZEALAND     1  0  1  0  3  3  1
GERMANY       1  0  0  1  2  3  0
AUSTRALIA     1  0  0  1  0  2  0



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