STANDINGS GROUP A
Malaysia’s hopes of joining the top guns in the quarterfinals of the 13th Men’s Hockey Junior World Cup was halted by Australia, who rode on a 5-2 victory at the National Hockey Stadium this afternoon.
Coach Amin Rahim’s Young Tigers started the match at a fast pace, highly inspired by the presence of hundreds of fans, and had the Burras under wraps but only for a brief moment.
However, Copper Burns kicked off the Australian goal-scoring act in the second minute via a penalty corner conversion.
It was another busy day for the Australians who continued the search for more goals. Jake Lambeth extended the lead to 2-0 four minutes later, Cambell Geddes converted a penalty corner in the 15th minute, before Lambeth and Geddes came back once again to score the second goals.
Osman Harris (21st min) and Shafiq Ikhmal Daniel (44th min) replied with one goal each for the host nation.
While the Australians will play France in the quarterfinals, the Malaysians have to be contented for a showdown against Egypt in the 9-16th Classification match.
Jay Stacy, Australian coach, said: “We are not aiming for the goals early but took the opportunities at some penalty corners we had and some other good chances. I think we played pretty well and need to do some polishing on some of our finishing in the circle. We need to be a little bit more efficient. Malaysia have improved a lot.
They are growing all the time, and we had to play to our best ability to contain them. They have improved quite a lot even since Johor (SOJC) just a month ago. One spot was left for the quarterfinals in Pool A, and we wanted to win that spot. Now, we will focus on France, our quarterfinals opponents. We have two days of rest, and there is a lot of work remaining to be done.”
For now, let’s forget this match and focus on the 9-16th classification match against Egypt. They should not be underestimated, although they lost 10-0 against Germany today. They may not have much international match exposure, but they are playing with a structure.”
Meanwhile, in an earlier match, defending champions Argentina did not waste time, and went about their usual business by defeating Chile 8-0 in their last Pool A match.
Ignacio Nardolillo opened scoring in the 17th minute, Matias Ray extended the lead to 2-0 (21st min) and Bautista Capurro packed a powerful shot past a hapless Chilean goalkeeper Julian Villanueva to put the Little Lions in a comfortable 3-0 lead.
The Argentineans, unbeaten in three matches, top Group A with nine points, and joined France and Germany from Pool B into the quarterfinals stage.
Bautista scored two more goals (49th and 50th minutes) to complete a hat-trick as Argentina went 5-0 ahead. But the Argentineans were far from over. Inaki Minadeo (50th), Nicolas Rodriguez (56th), and Marcos Aguirre Gomez sealed the match with 8-0 victory.
Juan Gilardi, Argentina coach, said: “The weather today is very hot, but we managed to overcome it and did not concede any goals. Now we will take a rest for two days and prepare for our quarterfinals match against Germany.
The quarterfinals are a different stage. It requires different planning and structure, as all the teams are equally strong. There can be no room for mistakes, unlike in the group stage. We have seen Germany play, and they are very fast and world-class level.”
Matias Amoroso, Chile coach, said: “I think my players were tired in the third and fourth quarters and could not focus anymore due to the heat and humidity.
We will now play in the 9-16th classification matches, first against South Africa. They are a very good and skillful side. What matters for us is that my players do their best and learn from this experience.”
