Malaysia needed to beat or draw with South Africa to book a third-placing play-off, but they never came anywhere close to it as they went down 1-7 in their final Group match in the Sultan Nazrin Shah Men’s international indoor hockey tournament at the Indera Mulia Stadium this evening.
In and earlier match, New Zealand needed 34 goals against Hong Kong to surpass Malaysia on goal difference for a third-place (assuming Malaysia lost to South Africa in the last match of the day).
New Zealand just did that beating Hong Kong 35-1 and had to play the waiting game.
And it turned out well for them, as Malaysia sunk to South Africa and in the end, while both Malaysia and New Zealand were tied on 6 points, the latter had a better goal difference of 6 goals (New Zealand had 27 differences, whereas Malaysia had 21).
As much as Malaysia tried to achieve the desired result against South Africa, the latter were simply too fast and furious for them.
Malaysia had to contend with finishing fifth in the table, above table supporters Hong Kong, who had no wins and conceded 124 goals.
Malaysian coach Hanip Che Halim said that they lost to a more experienced and formidable team.
“We have nothing to be ashamed of with our performance as the players gave their best and went down fighting,” said Hanip.
“This tournament has been a learning experience for us, playing teams from different continents and their varying styles.
“It would have been great if we had played in the third place match, but it was not meant to be. We tried our best.”
South Africa led 3-0 at the end of the first quarter, and it was also the halftime score.
In the third quarter, South Africa scored two goals to take a 5-0 lead.
They made it 6-0 in the final quarter, before Malaysia scored a consolation field goal through Firdaus Omar. South Africa rounded up the evening with a penalty corner, converted by Steven Paulo for his hattrick.
Hong Kong, who came with a relatively young team of only 11 players instead of 12, and were playing indoor hockey for the first time, were certainly out of its depth. They even registered their 42-year-old team manager, Lui Kim Ming, who never took the field.
To make matters worse, they came with only one goalkeeper (Lu Ka Pak) who is 17 years old and today had only 10 players to start with, as one player returned to Hong Kong to sit for his examinations.
Lu had the dubious honour of conceding 124 goals in five matches.
New Zealand led 6-0 in the first quarter, 14-1 at halftime score, 26-1 at the end of the third quarter, and finally 35-1.
Isaac Houlbrooke, named the Man of the Match, scored eight goals, while Tim Greenwood contributed nine goals.
In the next match, Namibia qualified for the final tomorrow in style when they thrashed Australia 12-1.
Australia who has been hot and cold in the tournament, was simply not in sync yesterday.
Australia had lost to Malaysia 2-8, but had defeated South Africa 5-4, beat New Zealand 6-4 and defeated Hong Kong 24-2.
With nine points, they will have to contend with playing in the third-place match.
TODAY’S RESULT
New Zealand 35 Hong Kong 1
Australia 1 Namibia 12
Malaysia 1 South Africa 7
Third place match: 4.00pm Australia v New Zealand
Final: 8.00pm Namibia v South Africa
