KUALA LUMPUR – The national women’s hockey squad suffered a major setback in their Olympic qualifying campaign after they were trounced 0-7 by hosts Spain at Estadio Beterodi, Valencia yesterday.
The Speedy Tigresses managed to defend well at the start of their Group B match, forcing world number eights Spain to wait till the 30th minute to score their first goal through Patricia Alvarez.
The next two goals then came in the third quarter, with Belen Iglesias scoring in the 37th minute, and Maria Lopez converting a penalty corner in the 41st.
Then the floodgates opened, and the goals from the European powerhouses kept streaming in, with Iglesias scoring her second in the 52nd minute, Alvarez completing her hat-trick with two successive strikes in two minutes (56th and 57th minute), and the seventh and last goal by Beatriz Perez in the 60th.
“It’s never easy playing for the first time against this high-ranked European team, but the players did not make it easy for them in the first quarter.
“We will try to steal some points against Canada, who are ranked nearly the same as us, tomorrow,” national women’s hockey coach Mohd Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim said in a video shared by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation to the media yesterday.
Malaysian will play Canada in their second group match today. – January 14, 2024