The Malaysians Juniors took the bull by the horn before falling 3-0 against Belgium in the Uttar Pradesh Hockey Junior World Cup Men, Lucknow 2016 on Monday.
Malaysia finished third in Pool B table standings on three points as Belgium and Netherlands qualified for Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Belgians topped the pool with nine points whilst the Dutch are second on six points following a 7-0 demolition of Egypt earlier in the day. The Egyptians are rocked at the bottom with no points.
The result means Wallace Tan’s juniors will now face New Zealand in the 9-12th classification match on Wednesday. The junior black sticks lost to Spain for a spot in the quarterfinals on Sunday after the Spaniards claimed a second place finish in Pool C in dramatic circumstances – a last minute 3-3 draw against New Zealand.
The Malaysians won four penalty corners throughout the match – two of which came in the first six minutes of play but drag-flick specialist Muhammad Najmi Jazlan could not find the breakthrough against a fortified Red Cougar defence led by Marco Donckx and an in-form goalkeeper in Loic van Doren.
Gregory Stockbroekx gave Belgium the lead in the 21st minute, an unmarked Quentin van Lierde knocked in the second two minutes before half time with enough space to slam the ball past goalkeeper Muhammad Zaimi Mat Deris and Thomas Verheijen 55th minute penalty corner goal put the result beyond doubt.
It was Malaysia’s second defeat in the Junior World Cup after going down 7-2 against Netherlands in the opening match last Friday and followed up with a 2-0 victory over African junior continental winner Egypt.
“We had a tough time breaking through in penalty corners and also had some chances in open play. There was some scrappy play with bad balls stopping in penalty corners but overall it was a good match as we proved the players are capable of giving European teams a good challenge despite the short notice we had in coming here,” said Malaysian coach Wallace Tan.
“We should have ended this game with a draw and that is my assessment of the match had we converted the opportunities. There is no doubt the boys did their very best against the Belgians,” he added.
Malaysia’s recent record against New Zealand has been exemplary following two straight wins in the Sultan of Johor Cup over the junior Black Sticks in early November at Johor Baru but Wallace is not counting much into the past and wants the juniors to stay focus on Wednesday.
“We cannot look into the SOJC performance anymore as New Zealand has been playing exceptionally well here. They had very strong teams in their group and lost out by a whisker of a spot against Spain in the quarterfinals. So we just have to keep improving in our own game.”
“That the juniors qualified for the 9-12th classification matches is an achievement by itself based on the limited time we had in our preparation for the Junior World Cup. We only received notification from FIH less than 10 days ago so let’s be realistic and understand the situation on hand
“Give the players credit for their courage and performance here. Any other team in our situation would have experienced the same,” said Wallace, adding that the players will train tomorrow and work on penalty corner set pieces to counter the junior Black Sticks.
Australia, Argentina and host nation India all confirmed their places in the quarterfinals on an absorbing fifth day of play. The five teams join Germany and Spain, the respective first and second-placed finishers from Pool C, in the knockout stages, with only one quarterfinal position left to be filled.
Although the match order and timings are yet to be officially decided, Pool A winners Australia will face Pool B runners-up the Netherlands. Pool D winners India and Pool C second-placed Spain are also a match-up, with Belgium and Argentina also going head to head.
Pool C winners Germany are still awaiting their opponent which will be decided on Tuesday (13th December) following the completion of the pool phase. England takes on Canada in a match that will decide the last qualifier for the quarterfinals and in Pool A, Australia take on Korea.
The Australians overcame a strong challenge from Austria to emerge 4-2 winners, with Joshua Simmonds, Lachlan Sharp, Blake Govers and Jack Welch all on target in the win. The result left Austria in second spot in Pool A with four points, meaning that Argentina needed to win their match against Korea by three clear goals in order to leap-frog the Austrians and snatch the ticket to the quarter-finals on goal-difference.
The South American continental champions achieved their target in impressive style, overpowering their Asian opponents with a 5-1 victory. Argentina was on fire in the first period, establishing a 3-0 lead inside 14 minutes thanks to efforts from Martin Ferreiro, Tomas Domene and Thomas Habif, with Nicolas Keenan adding another just before the break.
A Park Joohan strike reduced the arrears six minutes after half time, but Keenen grabbed his second and Argentina’s fifth to seal that all important quarterfinal berth.
The Netherlands scored three goals in the first half and four in the second. First half goals from Thijs van Dam, Jip Janssen and Bram van Groesen established a strong lead for the Dutch, with Thierry Brinkman, Sebastian van der Graaf, Janssen again and Noud Schoenaker completing the rout.
India was made to work hard for their 2-1 win over South Africa. Harjeet Singh rifled home in the 11th minute, but a penalty corner from Kyle Lion-Cachet ahead of half time levelled the scores at the break. Mandeep Singh scored the winner with 15 minutes of the match remaining, sending the crowd into raptures and sealing top spot in the pool.