KUALA LUMPUR: Hosts Malaysia gave an early warning when they opened the 2023 Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup (JWC) championship campaign by thrashing Chile 7-1 in rainy conditions at Bukit Jalil National Hockey Stadium here last night.
The result of the Group A match also saw the Young Tigers, ranked eighth in the world, maintained their unbeaten record in all four matches against the 20th-ranked team in the JWC since the inaugural edition in 1979.
With the home ground advantage, Malaysia dominated the match from the start, but the opening goal only came at the end of the first quarter, when Mohamad Harris Iskandar Osman managed to strike in the ball from the national team’s third penalty corner in the 13th minute.
Continuing in the second quarter, the two teams had their fair share of attacks before the national squad double the score in the 23rd minute through a strong shot by Muhammad Danish Aiman Khairil Anuar which struck the backboard after hitting the foot of goalkeeper Teodoro Matias.
Chile showed a resurgence when Sebastian Wolansky brilliantly converted the team’s first penalty corner in the 34th minute, but Muhamad Amin Rahim’s side quickly widened the gap through Jeffrynus Andywalfian’s penalty corner two minutes later.
The Young Tigers who were strongly supported by around 3,000 fans, then added two more goals in the third quarter, each through Azmilmuizzuddin Misron’s penalty corner in the 39th minute and Mohamad Shamir Rizmi Shamsul’s field goal two minutes later which shattered the morale of the players under Matias Amoroso.
Malaysia then completed the stylish victory when Shahmie Irfan Suhaimi added two goals in the last quarter, after converting a penalty corner in the 47th minute and a penalty in the 55th minute.
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah was present to watch the exciting match.
The Young Tigers squad will next face a tough challenge against the defending champions, Argentina at 8 pm today (Wednesday). Earlier, Argentina recorded a narrow 1-0 victory over Australia.
Malaysia’s best achievement at the JWC was fourth place in the inaugural edition in 1979, as well as in 1982 and 2013, while in the last edition, the national squad was eliminated in the quarter-finals after losing 0-4 to France.
Meanwhile, commenting on the match, Muhamad Amin said he was satisfied with the performance displayed but there was still room for improvement to tighten all weaknesses.
“I hope the players involved in taking penalty corner and scoring field goals would be more consistent with sharper strokes after this. What is demonstrated today is only 50 to 60, another 40 per cent were mistakes which should be addressed in the next 24 hours.
“We cannot afford to be complacent, not even for one second when meeting Argentina, they are the top team with very skilful individual players and their structure is different compared to other teams,” he said at press conference after the match here today.
Meanwhile, Shahmie Irfan said he considered the game today as a training match to overcome Argentina tomorrow.
“We will go all out for a win, whether I score or not does not matter,” he said.
Standings of teams after yesterday’s matches:
GROUP A
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| MALAYSIA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 3 |
| Argentina | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Australia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Chile | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
GROUP B
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Germany | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| France | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| South Africa | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| Egypt | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
GROUP C
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Spain | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 3 |
| India | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| South Korea | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Canada | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
GROUP D
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Belgium | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pakistan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New Zealand | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Today’s (Wednesday) schedule:
Group D:
Netherlands vs Pakistan – 9 am
Belgium vs New Zealand – 11 am
Group B:
South Africa vs Egypt – 2 pm
France vs Germany – 4 pm
Group A:
Australia vs Chile – 6 pm
Malaysia vs Argentina – 8 PM
– BERNAMA
