KUALA LUMPUR: The national men’s hockey team displayed another outstanding performance in their European Tour, tying
world number six, England 3-3 to top the Four Nations Invitation Tournament in Terrassa, Spain on Sunday.
The Malaysian Tigers, who ranked 12th in the world, shocked the Englishmen by netting in two penalty corners through Muhammad Razie Abdul Rahim and Mohammad Fitri Saari in the third and ninth minute, respectively.
England then managed to claw their way back through Sam Ward’s penalty corner in the 24th minute and striker Chris Griffiths’s field goal 10 minutes later.
The Malaysian side, under the tutelage of Roelant Oltmans again took the lead through Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin Tengku Abdul Jalil’s field goal in the 54th minute, but Phil Roper ensured England shared the spoils with a penalty corner goal three minutes later.
Malaysia topped the table with seven points after defeating host Spain 4-3 on Aug 1 and overcoming Ireland 2-1 on Friday, followed by Spain with four points, Ireland (2 points) and England (2 points).
Malaysia, preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics final stage of qualifiers scheduled for October and November this year, started the tour by stunning the two-time world champion and world number seven, Germany 4-2 in Krefeld on July 26, followed by a narrow 0-1 loss to world number nine, Spain.
Speaking after the match, Oltmans revealed that his charges failed to defend the single goal advantage in the first half of the match, despite England being down to nine man after their captain, Adam Dixon received a green card in the 29th minute, followed by a yellow card to Mark Gleghorne in the 39th minute.
“Our start was very good and we should have scored more goals in this period.
“Overall it’s a good result against an opponent that recently played the final four of the Pro League Hockey Tournament.We had a high percentage of penalty conversion which was around 67 percent,” Oltmans added.
The national team will continue their test series against three times world champions and world number three, the Netherlands on Tuesday and Thursday, followed by games against world number two, Belgium on Aug 10 and 12. – Bernama
