The result against Ireland was disappointing but Malaysia head coach A. Arulselvaraj is not about to reflect on what went wrong but rather to push his chargers quickly to prepare for the third and fourth placing match of the FIH Hockey Men's Nations Cup 2022 tomorrow.
Malaysia fell a little short against Ireland in the semifinals of the Nations Cup this evening when the latter walked away 3-0 clear winners in Potchefstroom, South Africa.
“It is disappointing to lose by three goals. I feel that even though we controlled certain aspects of the game and where we managed to get several Penalty Corners, we did not execute them well,” said Arul.
“We did not play our usual game. There was a lack of effort and energy but we need to bounce back from this, quickly.
“We need to rest and recover well for the third and fourth placing match tomorrow. At the very least, we need to win at least a medal.”
Malaysia started strongly when they won two Penalty Corners in a row early in the game but they just could not make it count as Ireland then pushed forward only to be denied by the excellent work of Muhammad Hafizuddin Othman between the sticks.
Several misses later into the second quarter and the frustration began to grow in the Malaysian camp as the game ended scoreless at the half.
With Ireland inching closer and closer to finding the back of the net, they finally do so in the 41st minute when Benjamin Walker capitalised on a chaotic situation in front of the Malaysian goal to push the ball in for the lead.
And two minutes later, Jeremy Duncan grabbed the second goal for Ireland in an almost similar situation to punish the hesitant Malaysian backline.
Malaysia tried to string passes together in search of their first goal but they just could not find the final touch to make their chances count.
And in the 52nd minute, Duncan scored his second and Ireland’s third goal to put the game beyond Malaysia’s reach.
”They scored from our own errors. Hafizuddin Othman was excellent today, he saved us from conceding a lot more goals,” added Arul.
“The defensive line could be improved.”
