THE Malaysian hockey team ended their Tour of Europe on a high when they beat Spain 3-2 in a highly entertaining match last night.
Malaysia went in the Tour to prepare for the Olympic Qualifiers next year, and were hammered by the Netherlands, but in Spain they picked up momentum and only lost 2-0 to the Spanish senior side in the first friendly.
Yesterday, the Spaniards drew first blood off Roc Oliva in a fourth minute penalty corner which beat goalkeeper S. Kumar low on the left.
A field goal by Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin in the 42nd minute was a top of the circle free-hit set-piece perfected after receiving the ball from Amin Rahim.
However, Roc Oliva again scored off a penalty corner, this time he beat goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin in the 49th minute with a left high ball.
Malaysia pushed forward and Faiz Helmi’s 54th minute effort landed Malaysia a crucial boost.
“To a certain degree, we achieved what we wanted to in Europe as there was improvement in some of the departments, especially the set-pieces,” said chief coach Tai Beng Hai.
After losing 2-0 to Spain in the last match, a strategy was hatched and the players did well to follow the script.
“Pointers picked up from the earlier match were used to stop Spain’s transfer from right to left as they used long balls to beat us.
“My midfielders kept a tight control of the centre and intercepted Spain’s build out of defense and this gave the forwards counter-attack chances and we scored twice off such occasions,” said Beng Hai.
The coach, who went to Europe without four of his regulars to play nine matches, now has more options to choose from as some of the replacements have shown good progress.
In Spain, the national players beat three top Spanish clubs – Real Polo Club (4-2), Athletic Terrassa HC (6-2) and Egara HC (2-0).
They then beat the Spanish Under-21 side 3-0 and then were held to a 1-1 draw.
In the Netherlands, the Malaysian side were hammered 9-1 and 5-1.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Malaysia 0 Spain 2
THE Malaysian hockey team lost 2-0 to world No 6 Spain in a friendly last night, but coach Tai Beng Hai felt a draw would have been a fairer result.
The team is in Europe to play a series on friendlies, and will play another match with the Spain seniors before wrapping up their fixtures.
Yesterday, the coach rested No 1 goalkeeper S. Kumar and fielded Roslan Jamaluddin as he prepares a team for the Olympic Qualifiers early next year.
“We started slow as we had to fall back into our own defense because of frequent interchanging between the Spanish midfielders.
“Play for both sides mostly revolved around midfield and counter-attacks to break the deadlock in the first 15 minutes of the match. However, we had better possession in the second half and could have forced a draw but for muffed chances,” said Beng Hai.
Malaysia had four penalty corners and failed to convert any, while the Spanish had eight and scored one.
“We had a chance to draw level after Spain scored in the 29th minute, but were unfortunate that the ball bounced awkwardly in the final moment after a good transfer among four players.
“And the 66th minute penalty corner goal from Spain shut the door for at least a draw as we were keeping possession and pushing forward at that moment,” lamented Beng Hai.
The first goal resulted from a long corner where the Spanish right wing dribbled into the left side of the Malaysian circle. He them pushes a harmless ball across the goal but defender Amin Rahim left his man on the far post and tried to intercept it at the near post.
Just then an rushing goalkeeper Roslan tried to kick the ball but was blocked by Amin. The loose ball rolled past the front of the Malaysian goal to the unmarked Pau Quemada at the far post for him to stop, and then push it in.
As for the second goal, it resulted from a Spanish sideline free-hit which was taken quickly and in the two v two situation, the Spanish player crossed each other but the umpire allowed play.
Our players were slow to react and the player with the ball dribbled into the circle with erase.
Amin tackled the player and the umpire interpreted the tackle as stick check and awarded a penalty corner which resulted Jamie Dabanch scoring with a right high flick to beat Roslan.
The team is in Europe to play a series on friendlies, and will play another match with the Spain seniors before wrapping up their fixtures.
Yesterday, the coach rested No 1 goalkeeper S. Kumar and fielded Roslan Jamaluddin as he prepares a team for the Olympic Qualifiers early next year.
“We started slow as we had to fall back into our own defense because of frequent interchanging between the Spanish midfielders.
“Play for both sides mostly revolved around midfield and counter-attacks to break the deadlock in the first 15 minutes of the match. However, we had better possession in the second half and could have forced a draw but for muffed chances,” said Beng Hai.
Malaysia had four penalty corners and failed to convert any, while the Spanish had eight and scored one.
“We had a chance to draw level after Spain scored in the 29th minute, but were unfortunate that the ball bounced awkwardly in the final moment after a good transfer among four players.
“And the 66th minute penalty corner goal from Spain shut the door for at least a draw as we were keeping possession and pushing forward at that moment,” lamented Beng Hai.
The first goal resulted from a long corner where the Spanish right wing dribbled into the left side of the Malaysian circle. He them pushes a harmless ball across the goal but defender Amin Rahim left his man on the far post and tried to intercept it at the near post.
Just then an rushing goalkeeper Roslan tried to kick the ball but was blocked by Amin. The loose ball rolled past the front of the Malaysian goal to the unmarked Pau Quemada at the far post for him to stop, and then push it in.
As for the second goal, it resulted from a Spanish sideline free-hit which was taken quickly and in the two v two situation, the Spanish player crossed each other but the umpire allowed play.
Our players were slow to react and the player with the ball dribbled into the circle with erase.
Amin tackled the player and the umpire interpreted the tackle as stick check and awarded a penalty corner which resulted Jamie Dabanch scoring with a right high flick to beat Roslan.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
FIH 2012 Congress in Malaysia
2012 Congress:
It was announced that Malaysia will host the 2012 FIH Congress in Kuala Lumpur. The Congress dates are from October 31 to November 4, 2012. It is the first time that Asia has hosted a Congress since 1975.
It was announced that Malaysia will host the 2012 FIH Congress in Kuala Lumpur. The Congress dates are from October 31 to November 4, 2012. It is the first time that Asia has hosted a Congress since 1975.
Champions Trophy & Champions Challenge Qualification System:The qualification criteria for the 2012 Champions Trophy and Champions Challenges were announced.
For the Champions Trophy the following teams will be qualified to participate:
The host
Teams placed 1st – 5th at the 2011 FIH Champions Trophy
The winners of the 2011 FIH Champions Challenge 1
One or two places to be nominated by the FIH Executive Board. The criteria used for the basis of the Executive Board decision are; commercial advantage to sport, world rankings and development of the game.
Qualification criteria for the Champions Challenge 1 and 2 can be found on the FIH website in the Event Resources section under the Sport section.
Teams placed 1st – 5th at the 2011 FIH Champions Trophy
The winners of the 2011 FIH Champions Challenge 1
One or two places to be nominated by the FIH Executive Board. The criteria used for the basis of the Executive Board decision are; commercial advantage to sport, world rankings and development of the game.
Qualification criteria for the Champions Challenge 1 and 2 can be found on the FIH website in the Event Resources section under the Sport section.
FIH World League:
The new FIH World League will be launched in 2012. To date 62 men’s teams have entered and 51 women’s. As a result of these numbers, it is likely that there will be nine men’s Round 1 tournaments and eight women’s. The FIH Competitions Committee has proposed that the Round 1 World League tournaments should be played after the Olympics in local venues to reduce travel for teams. Round 2 will follow in early 2013. In August / September 2013 Round 3 will be held and the first World League will conclude in November / December 2013 with Round 4.
Project Brazil
The FIH is working closely with the Brazil Hockey Confederation to develop an action plan to strengthen hockey in the nation in the build up to the Olympic Games in 2016. Steps taken to date include the hiring of a High Performance Director, which is in the final stages; securing equipment support; participation in the World League and hosting the Pan American Challenge at the end of July.
Complementary Game:
The FIH is currently brainstorming with various stakeholders to develop a complementary game in time for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games. Several other sports have used the YOG to roll out complementary game formats and FIH is hoping to do the same. A proposal has been put forward to the IOC for approval at the IOC Executive Board next week in Durban.
Dutch ladies win shoot-out title
The Netherlands produced one of the most memorable fight-backs in memory to win the Rabo FIH Champions Trophy by defeating world Champions Argentina in a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
Maartje Paumen scored a hat-trick to help her team recover from a 3-0 deficit to tie the match, before two goal-less periods of extra time lead to the first penalty shoot-out in Champions Trophy history. Carla Rebecchi, Luciana Aymar and Daniela Sruoga were all denied by Dutch shot-stopper Joyce Sombroek, which proved to be enough to give The Netherlands their first Champions Trophy since 2007, denying Argentina a fourth title in a row.
It was a brilliant day for The Netherlands, who also collected three of the six additional prizes in the closing ceremony. Team captain Maartje Paumen collected the Rabo Cup for the Best Player of the Tournament as well as the Shell Top Scorer awards, while Willemijn Bos was named as the Volvo Most Promising Player of the tournament.
Argentina’s Belen Succi was given the Heineken Cup for Best Goalkeeper, while Zhao Yudiao was given the Adidas Goal of the Tournament Award. The England team was named as the winners of the BDO Trophy for Fair Play.
Delighted Netherland coach Max Caldas said in the post match Press Conference: “They scored three goals with their first three chances, but the girls stayed cool. The 3-1 goal turned the game around for us, it was the difference … I think the public was the winner in this match they got to see a fantastic game. Luckily we won.”
When we went down 3-1 we also went down mentally”, said Argentina’s world cup winning coach Carlos Retegui. “That will happen, especially since we had a very young team here in Holland.”
Argentina captain Luciana Aymar was obviously disappointed with the outcome. “We had a good start in the first half, but when they put in the 3-1 goal it was hard for us. In the second half they played well, ran us hard and
we got tired.”
Monday, June 27, 2011
Picture perfect
Lidewij Welten scores Netherlands' second goal against Australia (Photo: FIH / Frank Uijlenbroek)The Netherlands showed that despite missing Naomi van As they have more than enough talent at their disposal by comprehensively defeating Australia’s Hockeyroos 3-0 in the final match of the day here at the Rabo FIH Champions Trophy in Amstelveen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
