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THE MALAYSIAN Under-18 girls ended fifth in the Fourth Asia Cup in Bangkok yesterday when they hammered Thailand 8-0.
The star of the day was Nurzafirah Aziz who scored four goals (23rd, 25th, 57th, 66th) while the other goals were scored by Qasidah Najwa (seventh), Nursyuhada Suhaimi (45th), Nur Adirana Nawawi(52nd), and Nuramirah Shakira (63rd).
Malaysia, in Group A, only lost to India 3-1 while they drew with China 2-2 and hammered Taiwan 7-1 but failed to advance to the semi-finals.
Malaysia will host the Sea Games next year where four gold medals are at stake, and the women are expected to deliver both in the field and indoor events while the men are sure bets for both golds as well.
THE Malaysian Tigress concluded their Tour of New Zealand yesterdaywith a 2-1 defeat against New Zealand's Black Sticks in the fifth and final game at the TET MultiSports Centre in Stratford.
Malaysia won one, 1-0, and lost four with the other three matches ending 2-5, 0-2 and 0-3.
New Zealand dominated the first half with Samantha Harrison scoring a double in her 100th international.
Malaysia lit up the board 10 minutes from full time through Nuraini Rashid’s penalty corner strike.
Fatin Shafika scored in the 1-0 famous win over the world No 5.
Black Sticks assistant coachSean Dancer said he was pleased by the performance of his side, ranked World No 5, against the World No 21 Malaysians as they closed the series positively.
“We are happy to finish with a win, but needed to score a few more goals from the amount of opportunities we created. Malaysia defended well in the second half and we needed to execute better in a congested attacking third,” said Dancer.
The New Zealand Tour has been an important aspect in the Tigress preparation for the Women’s World League Round Two in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 14-22 at the Tun Razak Hockey Stadium.
Malaysian will battle for a slot in the World League Semi-finals and a shot at the World Cup in the World League Round Two involving Ireland, Italy, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Wales.
World No 15 Italy are drawn in Group A with Thailand, Singapore and Wales whilst Malaysia are in Group B with Ireland (world No 16), Hong Kong and Kazakhstan.
The top two teams in Kuala Lumpur qualify for the Semi-finals of the World League.
MALAYSIA ended a dismal 11th in the Lucknow Junior World Cup yesterday when they edged Austria 2-1 in a penalty shoot-out after being held 2-2 in regulation time.
Coach Wallace Tan's boys took a 2-0 lead off Mohamed Zulhamizan (eighth) and Nik Rosemi Aiman (14th) but Austria drew level with goals from Binder Oliver (26th) and Kaltenbock Peter (41st) to take the match into shoot-out.
After a 2013 high of finishing fourth in the New Delhi JWC, the national juniors could not make use of the late entry when Pakistan could not make the trip due to visa problems.
In the Kuantan Junior Asia Cup in 2015, Malaysia had finished fifth among Asian teams after losing out to South Korea in a two-minute blitz, but could not show the same form in Lucknow.
In fact, only hosts India is carrying the Asian flag as they will play against Belgium in the final today.
India were champions in Kuantan, while Pakistan won silver, South Korea bronze and Japan fourth -- to qualify for Lucknow.
However, Japan finished 13th while South Korea 14th and 11th placed Malaysia indicate that the European teams have taken a massive lead in the junior level as well.
