The Young Tigers delivered an amazing and energetic performance against India before going down 2-4 in the Sultan of Johor Cup today.
The Johor Hockey Stadium on Taman Daya also witnessed more than 3,000 local fans who made a comeback to support the national juniors against the Indians after deserting them against Japan last Sunday.
This time they cheered on and even gave a standing ovation to the Young Tigers for their great showmanship and the many positives despite the defeat.
The Indian defensive structure saw cracks as they battled to keep the marauding Young Tigers who encroached into their semicircle more often in the last quarter in search of the goals.
National junior head coach I Vikneswaran, said: “We did not have a good first half. We were 2-0 up and allowed India to score two goals. People were telling us before the match to keep the score down. India is too good. As I told you all earlier, we have to see this into two angles. First is the SOJC itself and the other is the Junior Asia Cup (JAC).
“We will meet India somewhere in the middle of the line in the JAC. This is our third error in a game in this tournament for these boys. There is no point in defending. We want to play an attacking game. I must admit the boys had a really bad game against Japan. We accept the defeat. But today the boys stood to the plan and fought hard.”
“The only thing that happened was that when we scored two goals, we allowed them to come back and score two goals. This is what we call game management. The players must learn how to manage themselves on the field. Everybody is learning. I must admit they gave their hearts out,” added Vicky.
The Young Tigers were a transformed side today, coming into this crucial third match in their fixtures with an overwhelming desire to change their fortunes against the World No 2 Indian juniors.
The early sparks today indicate the Malaysians have come around from those painful defeats against New Zealand (2-3) and Japan (1-4).
Muhammad Danish Aiman stunned the Indians with a field goal eight minutes into the match, sneaking the ball past goalkeeper Bikramjit Singh from a goalmouth melee. The Young Tigers added more fuel to India’s aspirations just a minute later by scoring the second goal through Harris Osman in penalty corner. Malaysia 2 India 0.
There were many opportunities for both sides in the first quarter. While the Malaysians could not get the ball into the net, India struck back in the 11th minute through Sharda Tiwari Nand’s penalty corner conversion to reduce the deficit to 1-2.
Arshdeep Singh then sneaked the ball past goalkeeper Rafaizul Mohamad Saini and into the net two minutes later to level at 2-2. Priyobarta Talem (39th) and Rohit (40th), who was presented with the Man of the Match award, extended the score to 4-2.
Malaysia’s remarkable fightback against India in the first two quarters was clamped by the Indian defenders in the third and fourth quarters while their forwards went about on a goal-scoring exercise.