The Project 2013 were given a lesson in penalty corner finishing as they went down 6-2 to the Belgium U 21 side at the Terressa Hockey Club in Barcelona last night.
The Belgians scored three out of their six goals from penalty corners to hand the Project squad their first defeat in the European Tour.
Belgiums scored as early as 3rd minute before Firhan Ashaari scored the equaliser in the 10th minute. Belgium went into the halftime leading 2-1.
Although Mohd Sabri scored off the only penalty corner in 38th minute to draw level, Belgium scored four goals to collect all three points.
"Belgium is an experienced side with nine players from the 2009 Junior World Cup. They even beat the Spanish U-21 side 4 - 0 and 5 - 2 respectively," said Team Manager Mirnawan Nawawi.
"It is a very good learning process for the players since the four matches in Spain are competitive matches."
"On the positive note, we scored from the solitary penalty corner awarded. The effort by the players was good and we manage to create a few chances to score but again the forward let us down."
"We managed to match the more experience Belgians in the first 40 minutes but lack of concentration and this resulted us in conceding four more goals."
The Project 2013 squad will play the Spanish in two games Wednesday (5.50pm local time) and Thursday (6pm) before taking on Scotland on Friday (9pm).
"We expect the players to perform much better for the up coming games before leaving to Poland on Sunday," added Mirnawan.
