The National Men’s Hockey Team went out for the first round robin game of the Field Hockey event, SEA Games 2023 Phnom Penh, Cambodia at the Morodok Techo National Stadium with the right stride after not facing any problems to defeat their opponents, the host Cambodia, 6-0.
The six goals that resulted in the first match were through three field goal goals, two penalty corner goals and one penalty stroke goal, and today’s result also saw Malaysia at the top of the table due to goal advantage.
The hot situation can be seen at today’s meeting after the host, Cambodia tried to provoke by protesting some of the referee’s decisions which caused the match to be stopped twice.
However, the situation clearly did not affect the national team which first opened the scoring curtain in the fourth minute thanks to a goal by Muhammad Najib Abu Hassan before Muhammad Amirul Hamizan Azahar scored a stroke penalty goal in the 19th minute followed by another field goal by Muhammad Danish Aiman Khairil Anuar in the 21st minute which put Malaysia ahead 3-0 in the first half.
The action of the second half saw Malaysia add three more goals this time as a result of Alfarico Lance Liau Jr’s penalty corner goal in the 45th minute, Shahmie Irfan Suhaimi’s field goal in the 55th minute and a few moments before the actual action ended, the national camp was awarded with penalty corner that saw Muhammad Adam Ashraf Mohd Johari close the match with a 6-0 victory for Malaysia.
The Head Coach of the National Men’s SEA Sports Team, Muhamad Amin Rahim is still not satisfied with the performance shown by his men despite winning 6-0 in the first action.
“Alhamdulillah, the team’s first victory. Today’s match, the players looked nervous and lost their way, especially in the first two quarters. Maybe because of the weather factor and the fact that these young players are playing for the first time in this kind of sports event. But in the next two quarters, the players seemed comfortable and calm playing and managed to come out with a win without conceding.
“Two goals from a penalty corner is not enough, and the players involved need to take responsibility and try to fix the weakness of the penalty corner finisher.
“Laxity in the defensive line that allows the opponent to enter the “D” area and make a simple mistake to give the opponent a penalty corner. But credit must also be given for the players who managed to defend well on all four of the opposition’s penalty corners.
“For the meeting with Singapore, what we saw, Singapore played well against Indonesia yesterday and we could see some of their weaknesses, especially in terms of physicality.
“I hope the players will use our team’s advantage in the best possible way in addition to exerting pressure and absorbing the opponent’s pressure for us to immediately counterattack and try to win a second victory,” he explained.
Tomorrow, the National Men’s Squad will play against Singapore at 5:00 pm (Malaysian time).
