You ask four it Malaysia, as China make a point

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian men’s hockey team never seem to learn from their past mistakes.

Again, they made defensive errors to allow China to come back from a two-goal deficit and snatch a 4-4 draw in Group B at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

Last year, Malaysia were also leading against Japan in the Asian Games final in Indonesia before they allowed their opponents to draw level and go on to win in a penalty shootout.

Yesterday, Malaysia’s defence collapsed in the last 17 minutes as they conceded four penalty corner goals.

Malaysia got off to a good start though when Muhd Fitri Saari sounded the board in the fourth minute before Firhan Ashari doubled the score in the 34th minute.

But China came back strongly to score two penalty corner goals through Lin Changliang (43rd) and Ao Weibao (51st) minutes.

Malaysia regained the lead through Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin Tengku Abdul Jalil in the 53rd minute off a penalty corner but a minute later, Du Talake equalised off a penalty corner.

Tengku Ahmad netted his second goal in the 57th minute but China were not done as they levelled the score through Dong Yong in the 59th.

With the draw, Malaysia - ranked 13th in the world - have four points and one more match to play against Italy today.

Malaysia need a win over world No. 32 Italy to finish top of the group to secure a place in the semi-finals. Italy also have six points from two wins and they need only a draw to reach the semis.

China secured their first point in two matches and they need a draw against winless Brazil today to play in a cross-over match to win a place in the semi-finals.

National coach Roelant Oltmans was annoyed with the team’s porous defence.

“We dominated the match from the start and took a 2-0 lead but we allowed the Chinese team to fight back and score four penalty corners in the last quarter,” said Oltmans.

“We need to play much better against Italy to get the full points tomorrow (today),” said Oltmans.