Pic from FIH Website
Malaysia registered their second win in the Champions Challenge in Argentina when they defeated South Korea 4-2.
The win puts them on the top of the standings in Pool A and a win or draw against Canada in their final preliminary round match on Tuesday will set up a possible quarterfinal match against either South Africa or Ireland.
Ironically both teams were formerly coached by Paul Revington, who took charge of the Malaysian team this August.
Revs was naturally pleased with the winning starts and shared with this blog his thoughts:
"The pleasing aspects have been the willingness on behalf of all the
players to listen to what we are asking them to do, and then to have the
courage and confidence to put it into practice," said Revington.
"The players are working
really hard in all areas - and especially mentally - to be able to deal
with all the continual improvements we are challenging them with on an
individual and team level.
"It is never easy beating a quality team like Korea -
and especially to score 4 goals like we did. The team were a bit
frustrated with their performance in the final 8-10 minutes and they are
continually pushing themselves to perform more consistently for longer.
"I am pleased the senior players and leaders are contributing so much
quality and, although the event is only two games old, I am confident
this leadership will get stronger and stronger.
"A "clean sheet" is hard to come by in international hockey so I am extremely pleased too!
"Canada
will be a tough opponent as always and we will need to work extremely
hard and perform to a very high level if we are to beat them."
For the record, Malaysia's last win over South Korea in a competetive match was registered at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in 2011 where Malaysia won 3-1.
And the last defeat at the hands of the Koreans was at the 2012 edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup where Malaysia lost 3-2 in the playoff for the 5/6th placing.
While it is good that Malaysia has registered two wins, it is pertinent to note that winning the quarterfinal match is vital to improve our rankings and improve on last year's finish. The matches in the group stage are to determine rankings for the last eight stage.
Match Report from FIH
In the clash of the Asian representatives in pool A at the Argentina
Hockey Champions Challenge 1 today, things seemed to take their expected
course when Korea scored an early goal through penalty corner
specialist Jang Jong Hyun.
Malaysia had different plans however, and fought back
with determination. An 18th minute penalty corner from Muhammad Razie
Abd Rahim set the balance back to start, and a blitz hit yielding two
goals in about a minute towards the end of the first half, both at the
hands of Tengku Ahmad Tajudin Abdul Jalil, established a comfortable
lead already.
In the second half, Chua Boon Huat piled on another against a Korean
team that didn't seem able to find a way to deal with the speedy
Malaysians strikers. Malaysia had a number of further opportunities but
it was Korea that scored with about ten minutes left on the clock, once
more at the hands of Jang Jong Hyun.
But it was too little too late for Korea, and the Malaysian team celebrated the final whistle that spelt out a 4-2 win for them.
