Malaysia booked their place in
the semi final of the Asia Cup when they overcame a spirited Japan 3-2 at the
Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh last night.
Coming back from 0-2 down against
the 16th ranked Japanese was to be expected but Malaysia cannot
afford such luxury against India, their expected opponents in Friday’s semi
final.
Not so when Indian coach Roelant
Oltmans made it clear that the Asia Cup actually starts on Friday, showing the
seriousness of the task Malaysia is expected to face.
Malaysia played poorly in the
opening 35 minutes and were a shade lucky going into the break on level terms
as Japan caved in under pressure.
“It was a nervy start by the
team, perhaps they were over cautious since the stakes were high. Thus Japan
took advantage of our apprehensive start to score the two goals,” said coach
Paul Revington.
“But the players stuck to the
game plan and were back on level terms before halftime. I think overall we
dominated the match but there are many areas that we need to shore up, especially
in the middle of the defence.
“Though our opponents in the
semis will only be determined after the matches tomorrow (Wednesday), it ls
obvious that we will play India. And looking at them they have been impressive,
tactically sond and play with a high level of discipline. So it will be an
interesting match on Friday.”
Another area that Malaysia needs
to work on is their penalty corner as they were awarded seven penalty corners
in the match but scored from two. Overall in the tournament thus far Malaysia
have been awarded a total of 19 penalty corners with six finding the back of
the net.
Japan went 2-0 ahead in the
opening ten minutes, taking full advantage of a listless display by the
Malaysians.
Toshiro Tachibana got the first
off a penalty corner in the 6th minute, his attempt taking a wicked
deflection from Mohd Marhan Jalil to wrong foot Malaysian custodian S. Kumar.
Two minutes later they doubled
the advantage as Kei Kawakami deflected the ball past Kumar with the Malaysian
defenders asleep.
The fightback started in the 14th
minute with Mohd Razie Rahim converting a penalty corner before Firhan Ashaari
scored with a delightful reverse hit in the 28th minute to make it
all square.
Faisal Saari converted a penalty
corner in the 60th minute with Azlan Misron making it 4-2 in the 66th
minute to give Malaysia the win, But it is the overall performance that
Revington and his coaching staff will be worried about.
Results:
Pakistan 13 Chinese Taipei 0
Malaysia 4 Japan 2
