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| January 21, 2002 | Monday | Ziqa’ad 6, 1422 |
Pakistan run riot against Malaysia
Pakistan 4 Malaysia 1
New Zealand 3 Netherlands 1
Australia 3 Japan 1
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20: Former world champions Pakistan ran riot against a hapless Malaysia to record a 4-1 win in the six-nation tournament late Saturday evening.
In the process, they sent out a strong signal — that they are strong World Cup title contenders.
The nagging fear of the other teams is: If Shahbaz, one of the greatest hockey players of all time, is holding back in this tournament, as is the Pakistan team, for obvious reasons - What should they expect next month?
Pakistan seem to be on the right track, at least after their convincing wins over world champions the Netherlands 3-0 in their first match and Malaysia.
In today’s match, Mohammad Saqlain put Pakistan ahead in the 29th minute from a penalty corner. Malaysia, playing without injured midfielder, S.Kuhan and defender Nor Azlan Bakar, held back the rampaging Pakistanis and kept the score 1-0 at half time.
Malaysia knew they should forget the results in the two friendlies, where Malaysia lost 2-1 and then surprised everyone with a 3-3 draw, and come back fighting in the second half.
They did, but it didn’t last long. Shahbaz gave Pakistan a 2-0 lead in the 45th minute. The gritty Malaysians fought back and reduced the deficit 2-1 when Tajol Rosli’s deflection off a hit outside the 25 by Maninderjit Singh caught Mohammad Qasim off position in the 62nd minute.
Just when everyone thought, Malaysians were going to do something incredible, Pakistan pulled ahead in four minutes when Kashif Jawwad scored a field goal, followed by penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas finding the net in the 69th minute.
Pakistan had 12 shots at goal and five penalty corners, while Malaysia had three shots at goal and one penalty corner. One thing was clear for Malaysia - that without key players, they have no capable players to replace them.
“The bench has no depth and that might pose a problem in the World Cup,” says coach Paul Lissek.
Malaysia are not the only team bogged down by injuries in the run-up to the World Cup.
The Netherlands have a bigger problem as their penalty corner specialist Bram Lomas is also down with a calf injury while playmaker Peter Windt has a blood clot on his calf and will be out for three weeks.
NETHERLANDS STUNNED: Playing on Malaysian soil against the Netherlands is good luck for New Zealand as they defeated the world champions 3-1 to record their first win in the tournament.
The last time the Kiwis beat the Dutch was in the 1975 Kuala Lumpur World Cup. The score line then was 2-1.
Dutch coach Joost Bellaart was upset with the surprise defeat today.
“No doubt that the great Dutch team will have to do a lot of work before next month World Cup. We are the defending champions and I reckon my team will be ready for the tournament.”
The opening 10 minutes of the match turned out to be a bore as the ball was mainly concentrated in the middle of the pitch.
The Dutch had two good opportunities but shots from Remco van Wijk and Piet van Weide was well saved by New Zealand goalkeeper Michael Bevin.
Moments later the Kiwis scored their opener in the 14th minute through Bevan Hari.
The goal did wake up the Dutch boys but the lack of understanding let them down in many goal-scoring attempts.
The Dutch earned their first penalty corner of the match a minute into the second half but Taeke Taekema shot wide.
In the 39th minute, the Kiwis scored their second through Brett Leaver off a well-taken penalty corner set piece. It was his second in this tournament.
The Netherlands earned a total of nine penalty corners but could not find the target.
In the 47th minute Philip Burrows broke through from the 25-yard line leaving the Dutch defender trailing in his wake before passing the ball to 26-year-old Bevan Hari for his second of the match and third for New Zealand.
The Netherlands scored the consolation goal a minute before full time through striker Wijk.
AUSTRALIA WIN: In the other match, all four goals came from penalty corners, and Japan may well be the “spoilers” in the World Cup next month.
They took the game to the Aussies and only some poor defending in penalty corner situations cost them the match.
Australia got their three penalty corner goals through Troy Elder (2) and Matthew Wells while Japan replied through Naohiko Tobita.
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