Malaysia’s senior women’s hockey team lost 1-2 against Wales in the second friendly match at the National Hockey Centre in Cardiff today.
Zati Alyani Muhammad Zubir gave the Malaysian Tigress the lead with a fourth minute field goal. The Welsh equalised 10 minutes later through a field goal, and extended the lead to 2-1 in the 49th minute in similar fashion.
The Tigress begun their six-match series tour of Wales with a 2-2 draw against the Welsh national team in their opening match on Thursday (Aug 2).
Defender Anith Humairah Baharudin converted a penalty corner (40th minute) and Nur Afiqah Syahzani Azhar extended the lead to 2-0 via a field goal seconds before the end of the third quarter.
In the absence of midfielder Sarah Jones who secured a place on the Great Britain team currently competing in the Paris Olympics, Wales reduced the deficit in the 49th minute through a field goal before equalising 2-2 in the 57th minute.
The Malaysian Tigress will play the third friendly match tomorrow (Sunday, 4 Aug) followed by three international test matches on Aug 7, Aug 9 and Aug 10 at the same venue.
National women’s team head coach Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim said he is excited with the performance of several players who last played international matches in January at the FIH Olympic Qualifiers (Jan 13-21) in Valencia, Spain.
“It’s been six months since they last played in international matches and they are getting back on track. Both teams showed a ‘high press’ performance in a high intensity match. It was an evenly balanced match,” said Nasihin.
“There was a good connection and understanding between the defenders, midfielders and forwards in this second match. The team played hard until the end of regulation time. We had a couple of goal-scoring chances in the fourth quarter but couldn’t find the back of the next,” he said.
He added that the experience of playing against the Welsh, who compete in the English Premier Hockey League, is huge significance for the Malaysians as it provides valuable inputs about areas to improve.