Malaysia defeated South Korea 4-2 in a friendly match today in Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia, China, as Sarjit Singh’s Speedy Tigers gear up for the 2024 Hockey Asian Champions Trophy set to commence on Sunday.
With the Malaysians ranked 13th and Koreans 14th in the current World Rankings, the friendly match, said Sarjit, is to fine tune team strategies and identify areas of improvement ahead of the ultimate challenge in the ACT.
The Speedy Tigers will take on Pakistan in their opening match of the ACT on Sept 8.
“We arrived here almost 4pm on Sept 3 and the players had a good rest after a long journey. The friendly match against the Koreans was good for us as well as for the Koreans. They are also developing their team. We played well and had our opportunities to score goals. Generally, it was a good workout for the team,” said Sarjit.
The Koreans earned seven penalty corners in the match and scored from two, while the Speedy Tigers had five penalty corners and scored from three.
Forward Faizal Saari scored a hat-trick in the 13th (field goal), 49th and 54th minutes via penalty corner conversions while Muhammad Faris Harizan netted one in a similar fashion.
The Koreans held a 2-1 lead in the second quarter with penalty corner conversion goals in the 16th and 29th minutes before the Malaysians went into a winning mode.
“The weather is fine here and the temperature is acceptable. There are no issues. I am satisfied with our work load today. Our focus is on getting the team acclimated to the environment and ground conditions,” he added.
Sarjit added that goalkeepers Muhamad Zaimi Mat Deris and Adrian Andy Albert gave a good performance against the Koreans.
“Zaimi played in the first and second quarters, while Adrian took his position in the third and fourth quarters. I was impressed with the performance of both goalkeepers. Adrian made several saves in the last two quarters,” said Sarjit.
“We will have more training sessions in the new next few days and perhaps another friendly match against the Koreans. It won’t be a full match, maybe just two quarters.”
He stressed that defender Muhammad Amirul Hamizan Azhar suffered a minor gash on his head that required two stitches during a tussle for the ball in the match.
“He is alright. It was a minor incident and Amirul is good to play in the tournament. He will do light training and take a rest,” said Sarjit.
Fresh from an exciting experience on their recent European tour in August, the Asian Champions Trophy will be the Malaysians’ third international tournament following their journey in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at home in May and the Nations Cup in Poland in June.
