RUS Nikolay KOMAROV assists EGY Hamada ATEF. Egypt won 3-0.
MALAYSIA had a dream start when they scored four goals in 11minutes, but then strggled to beat United States 5-2 in Group C of the Junior World Cup at the Taman Daya Stadium in Johor Baru.
It what should have been a whipping exercise, turned into a heart-stopper in the second half as they allowed US into the match.
However, the three points are valuable enough, and now they must beat Spain on Friday to qualify for the second round.
"We had US early in the match, but stopped playing hockey in the second half. However, the three points is what mattered most, as we live to play Spain for a shot at the second round," said Malaysian coach K. Rajan.
The 6,000-odd crowd started cheering a good 20 minutes before the match started, and the national juniors gave them more reasons to try and break the sound barrier when they nipped in a reverse stick goal in the second minute itself.
The crown went will with celebrations when a top-of-the circle reverse stick shot by Izzat Rahim went crashing into the net.
And it was just the tonic that Izzat's team-mates needed top push harder, and in the eighth minute, Marhan Jalil made it 2-0 after skipper Khairul Anuar did all the hard work from the Malaysian back-line.
The floodgates opened wide, and Malaysia were rewarded with a penalty stroke in the ninth minute, and Faizal Shaari cooly tucked in the third goal.
The United States were never in the picture and two minutes later, Shafiq Zain deflected home a hit from Faizal, and Malaysia were comfortably in the driving seat.
Losing to the United States was now out of the question, and only how many goals the boys in yellow could score was on everybody's mind. But after taking a good early cushion, complacency set in and passes went wild, or of target and US took the opportunity to score a soft goal in the 30th minute.
Nicholas Zoke broke the US' duck with a slow push which fooled goalkeeper Hakim Adnan, and the first half ended 4-1.
In the second half, after scoring the first goal of the tournament, US won their first penalty corner of the tournament as well in the 42nd minute, but the flick went over the bar. Malaysia went into sleep mode, and mistakes crept into their match, but luck was still on their side, as the US were happy to defend and rarely attacked.
The packed gallery were shocked to see Malaysia conceede their third penalty corner to US in the 56th minute, and Jed Cunningham scored to make it 4-2.
Malaysia finally won their first penalty corner of the match in the 63rd minute, and Faizal flicked in high for his second, and Malaysia's fifth goal.
