Argentina and Gonzalo Peillat served our national hockey team a lesson on penalty corners as they ran out 5-2 victors in Day 2 of the HERO Hockey World League Semi-finals at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre, London earlier today.
It was feisty and entertaining from the get go with Malaysia’s Faiz Jali receiving a yellow card just before Gonzalo Peillat slotted home his first penalty corner to give Argentina the lead in the 4th minute.
Malaysia were determined to get back on level terms quickly as they pushed forward and got the equaliser three minutes later through Sharil Saabah’s delicate flick at the end of a wonderful attacking move.
Peillat then despatched his second penalty corner in the 11th minute, this time taking a slight deflection from a Malaysian player to take it past S.Kumar.
The Speedy Tigers replied once again as Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin cheekily deflected a penalty corner in the 18th minute to end the first half on a high.
The Peillat show continued right after the break with the 24 year old completing his hat-trick in the 40th minute and adding a fourth in the 47th minute through two more sweetly taken penalty corners to give Argentina a two goal lead and take his goal tally to six in the tournament.
Argentina then secured the win two minutes later thanks to poor marking by the Malaysian defence which allowed Facundo Callioni to finish from close range and give the South Americans a comfortable lead.
Both teams played out a cagey final ten minutes with the referee brandishing two yellow cards to Malaysia and a green card to Argentina before blowing the final whistle at 5-2 to the world No.1 ranked team.
“We had a difficult start as we took time to settle down especially when Faiz was sent off (10 minutes yellow card) as early as the 4th minute. Having said that, we can take a few positives from this opening match mainly of how we managed to get back into the game twice considering Argentina are the top seeds”, said Malaysia’s coach, Stephen Van Huizen after the match.
“My boys really fought hard to get a result but our opponents’ penalty corners were the difference and we didn’t do well enough to defend them. After this physical match, now we have to quickly regroup for our match against England and unlike today, must make most of our chances count”, added Coach Stephen.
The World League Semi-finals action comes thick and fast for the Malaysian squad as they return to the turf to take on England in their second group match later today (11pm Malaysia time) at the same venue.
