KUALA LUMPUR – National hockey head coach Sarjit Singh expressed disapproval of his charges’ performance following their 4-3 defeat to South Korea in the fifth to eighth-place classification match at the ongoing Nations Cup in Gniezno, Poland.
The match last night, with a total of 12 penalty corners and penalty strokes awarded to both sides, saw Malaysia scoring three goals.
Faizal Saari contributed a brace, while Muhammad Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal scored the third goal.
South Korea, under the guidance of Min Tae-seok and with an average squad age of 26, saw goals from Kim Sung-yeob, Seo Inwoo, Lim Do-hyun and Rim Jin-kang.
Having clashed 34 times since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, South Korea, known as the Taegeuks, had a higher winning percentage of 50%.
However, the Speedy Tigers had a decent track record coming into the tournament, having defeated their world number 14 opponents 1-0 in a pool match at the recently concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.
Malaysia finished fourth in the 30th edition of the six-nation invitational tournament.
Sarjit said that his team should not be satisfied with their performance and should aim to work harder and improve their strategies for their seventh to eighth-place classification match.
“Today was not the result we expected, and it was disappointing. We cannot be satisfied with the way my team performed, and we need to work harder after (last night’s) defeat.
“Many things need to be improved, but the players gave good effort and commitment in the match.
“We tried to use the power play tactic in the last four minutes, but South Korea cleverly closed the space to block us from going forward.
“We look forward to the last game (later today), and we need to win in our seventh to eighth-place classification match,” said Sarjit.
For context, the power play is used by a team to aggressively attack to score a goal when they are a few goals down.
It also focuses on effective defending to prevent the opposing team from scoring during this period.
Once the power play period ends or a goal is scored, both teams return to equal strength.
The Speedy Tigers will take on Austria in the seventh to eighth-place classification match later today.
The Austrians lost to Canada 1-3 in a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw in regulation time in an earlier fifth-to-eighth-place classification match.
Sarjit, brought in by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation on a two-year contract in March this year, selected 18 players from a pool of 30 for his revamped side.
The Speedy Tigers currently rank number 12 in the world with 1,919.58 points. – June 9, 2024