KUALA LUMPUR: National men’s hockey team coach A. Arul Selvaraj (pix) admitted that mistakes made by his men cost them dearly in the 3-2 defeat by China in the opening match of the 2024 Paris Olympic Qualifiers last night.
He added that the removal of Zul Pidaus Mizu, who was a pillar of strength in defence for the Speedy Tigers, due to injury allowed China to slot home the winner off a penalty corner setpiece in the final seconds.
“This is not the result we expected. Although we controlled as much of the game as possible, we made mistakes and were punished by China who scored a field goal as well as from a penalty stroke and a penalty corner setpiece.
“However, Zul Pidaus did well in the backline,” he said in a video clip shared with the media by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) today.
Yesterday, Malaysia were edged 3-2 by China in a Group A match at the Oman Hockey Stadium in Muscat, Oman. The other two teams in the group are Great Britain and Pakistan.
Malaysia got their goals through Muhammad Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal (29th minute, field goal) and Muhammad Razie Abdul Rahim (47th minute, penalty corner) while China scored through Lin Changliang (31st minute, penalty corner), Chao Jieming (34th minute, field goal) and Gao Jiesheng (60th minute, penalty corner).
However, Arul has called on his men to put behind them the disappointment and look ahead with positivity and motivation as they gear up to take on Great Britain tonight.
Arul said his men would need to be prepared physically to adapt to their opponents’ fast and intense style of play.
“The loss to China has made tonight’s game trickier for us. They (Great Britain) are a higher-ranked team who play a very fast game. We cannot give them too much space,” he said.
The 2024 Olympic Qualifiers in Muscat is the final platform for teams to get into the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with the top three finishers qualifying for the prestigious global event.
The Speedy Tigers last qualified for the Olympics in the 2000 edition in Sydney. -Bernama
