KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s young guns ended their Nations Cup campaign in seventh place by scraping through a gutsy Austrian team with a 5-4 victory in their classification match in Gniezno, Poland, today.
The match, with a total of nine penalty corners and penalty strokes awarded to both sides, saw Malaysia achieve their highest goal tally in the eight-day tournament.
Faizal Saari contributed a hat-trick, while Muhammad Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal and Fitri Saari each scored one goal for the Speedy Tigers.
Austria, under the guidance of Robin Rösch and with an average squad age of 27, saw goals from Losonci Fülöp, Scholz Maximilian (brace), and Kucera Arthur.
The two teams have met three times since the 2009 Hockey Champions Challenge II, with Malaysia holding a higher winning percentage of 66.67%.
Their last encounter ended in Malaysia’s favour with a 3-1 victory at the 2019 FIH Men’s Series Finals.
Sarjit said that he was happy with his charges for scoring a high number of goals in the match and further commended the gameplay of Muhamad Faris Harizan and Azimuddin Syakir Kamaruddin for their consistent performances.
However, the gaffer was unimpressed with his side for squandering their lead again, citing it as an issue that has to be fixed immediately.
“We are indeed satisfied to score five goals in this match, but I’m disappointed that we conceded three goals after leading the match 5-1. Conceding goals in crucial matches like this is something that we need to stop, and this problem has to be fixed immediately.
“All my players were good throughout the tournament, but Faris and Azimuddin stood out for me as they played well and were consistent.
“Overall, in this tournament, we were able to score a lot of goals, and we always started well early in the games that we played. The team also looks forward to making improvements to all the weaknesses identified in this tournament,” said Sarjit.
For the record, Malaysia, with an average squad age of 24 years, scored a total of 17 goals and conceded a total of 17 goals in the tournament.
Their goal-scoring record in their second participation in the Nations Cup increased by 47%, as they only managed to score eight goals in the 2022 edition, where they finished as semi-finalists.
A total of nine teams participated in two pools: Austria, South Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, France, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Poland, in this year’s Nations Cup, which was scheduled from May 31 to June 9.
Sarjit, brought in by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation on a two-year contract in March this year, selected 18 players from a pool of 30 for his revamped side.
His team will next participate in the Asian Champions Trophy in Inner Mongolia, China, scheduled for September 8 to 17.
The Speedy Tigers currently rank number 12 in the world with 1,919.58 points. – June 9, 2024