National coach Paul Revington spent Christmas all alone, away from his wife Sandy who was with the family in Cape Town.
It gave him time to reflect on the 2-1 defeat against China on Christmas Eve , a defeat that could well extinguish hopes of Malaysia making the final of the AHF Champions Trophy in Doha.
Below is Revs reflections on the match and how he would approach the match against India tonight:
What went wrong versus China:
" China played well. They defended resolutely, they took the two chances we presented them with and were sharper on the day - technically and emotionally.
Were Malaysia Complacent
" No. It was an extremely high quality and tempo game against Pakistan the night before and I think both teams (Malaysia and Pakistan) battled to repeat anything near to the level of the previous night. That is not an excuse it is just a reality unfortunately. Although we missed chances - I don't believe we created enough. "
What will we do against India?
"These types of games are always tricky to find a balance! If we must win (for argument sake) by 5 goals - do we throw structure out the window?
"My answer lies in the process of searching for improvement all the time and knowing that persistence in this regard will always lead to performance and results.
We must still aim to perform well and if this leads to us winning the game, and then by the necessary number of goals - then that will be fantastic."
