KUALA LUMPUR – The national men’s hockey team will have to settle for a 13th to 16th place finish at the 2023 Hockey World Cup in India after they lost to South Africa 6-3 in the ninth to 16th place classification match.
Speaking after the defeat, Speedy Tigers head coach A. Arul Selvaraj said the first two quarters were poor from the national team.
“I’m not sure if we lost our focus or if it was our confidence in the first two quarters. We had already lost the match then.
“We bounced back in the third and fourth quarter. But overall, the whole team is disappointed with the loss,” he said.
Arul congratulated South Africa for their win, as he said the squad showed higher capability in the match compared with Malaysia.
“But praise needs to be given to our first runners during the penalty corners. Even though South Africa had more penalty corners, our first runners blocked most of them and only allowed one to score through a rebound,” he added.
Arul also said the team made mistakes, as they did not enter the attacking circle as much as they should have.
“There was less movement off the ball, and in the first two quarters we did not enter their circle enough,” he said.
Malaysia will now wait for the results of the Japan v India match to see who they will go up against for the 13th to 16th place classification. – The Vibes, January 26, 2023
