Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Belgium lesson invaluable..

BELGIUM juniors sealed a hat-trick of wins when they beat Malaysia juniors 4-2 in their final test at the Denetage Hockey Club in Antwerp on Tuesday night.
  The European champions won 3-2, 7-0 and were 2-2 in the first half in the final test, before powering ahead for a whitewash in the series.
  Malaysia, who played three matches in Poland prior to this, will now head for England to play another three matches against the Under-21 side on Aug 1, 3 and 4.
  "We held them to a draw for 35 minutes, but a few harsh decisions by the umpires in the second half made it uphill for my players.
   "Playing with 10, and then nine players most if the second half made it difficult to plan for a comeback, as they scored off counter attacks when we moved up," said juniors team manager Mirnawan Nawawi.
  However, the experience was invaluable: "The three matches gave us a good insight of the Belgium side as this would be the last time we play them before the Junior World Cup in New Delhi," said Mirnawan.
  The Malaysian goals were scored by Rashid Baharom off a penalty corner rebound in the 23rd minute and off a Nor Aqmal Ghaffar penalty corner in the 28 minutes.
  The Belgium goals were scored in the 18th, 19th, 46th and 59th minutes.
  While the green cards to Malaysia were picked up by Haziq Shamsol and Kavin Khartik. The yellow cards in the second half were flashed to Azrul Hasbullah, Kavin and Azri Hassan.