Sunday, March 12, 2017

World League Rd 2 Dhaka: GOLD for Malaysia!

THE NATIONAL hockey players came back from two goals down to hold China 2-2 and then win the World League Round Two gold medal on penalty shoot-out in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday.
  In the shoot-out, Malaysia won 5-3.
  Malaysia and China, by reaching the final in Dhaka, had already qualified for the World League Semifinals and will play either in Johannesburg on July 9-23, or in London on Jun 15-25.
  Playing on an almost dry pitch, due to strong winds, China took the lead at the first quarter break off a penalty corner attempt.
  Lanky defender Du Talake's thundering flick in the 15th minute beat custodian Hafizuddin Othman for the lead.
  And Malaysia were in trouble by the 22nd minute, when Jun Su tucked in from close range to increase the lead.
  Malaysia's misery was compounded in the 25th minute, when Najmi Jazlan missed a penalty stroke chance by flicking straight to goalkeeper Ming Cheng.
  Ming Cheng was the hero of the moment, as he saved five point blank attempts by Malaysia, while one was saved by the post.
  Malaysia bungled eight penalty corners and a penalty stroke by half-time.
  Finally, the 11th penalty corner was tucked in by Shahril Saabah in the 46th minute.
  And the 12th penalty corner in the 55th minute was also made good, as Najmi Jazlan scored the equaliser and took the match to shoot-out.
   RESULTS: Final -- Malaysia 2 China 2 (Malaysian win shoot-out 5-3; Third-Fourth: Oman 1 Egypt 5; Fifth-Sixth: Bangladesh 3 Ghaha 3 (Bangladesh win sudden-death shoot-out 4-3; Seventh-Eighth: Fiji 3 Sri Lanka 5.