THE national juniors hockey team lost 3-0 to the Poland senior side in their second match in Warsaw yesterday.
The juniors are on a Tour of Europe for nine matches, and they whipped the Polish juniors 7-0, but found the senior side difficult to crack.
They next play Poland juniors again today before heading for Belgium for three matches, and complete their tour in England with another three matches.
The Poland senior side are in their final phase of training for the European Championships in three weeks time, which also serves as a World Cup Qualifier for Europe.
"They scored the first goal when a penalty corner was turned into a penalty stroke after the ball hit Kavin Kartik's body, and it remained until the half-time breather.
"In the second half, we paid the price for missing sitters and also penalty corner attempts which hit the bar, and also were well saved by their goalkeeper. The Polish scored two more late counter attack goals when the players pushed forward in numbers," said team manager Mirnawan Nawawi.
Overall, said Mirnawan, his charges managed to compete with the Polish senior side on skills and tactics, but lost out to a more experienced set of players.
The Malaysian juniors, an under-21 side, are preparing for the New Delhi Junior World Cup in December.
