National team back home after Gibraltar tournament
The National Hockey Team (Men) returned home following its participation in the EuroHockey Championship III in Gibraltar last week.
Following the results obtained, Malta will be dropping to Championship IV in two years’ time.
Drawn in Pool B, Malta started off with a 6-0 defeat against Portugal.
A poor first quarter in their second game against Slovakia allowed their opponents to take a 2-0 lead which could not be recovered, despite almost constant pressure including a missed penalty. The match against Slovakia ended 1-3. Luke Bajada was the goalscorer for Malta.
The last group match was against the might of eventual winners Croatia. Playing a tight match Malta did their best to limit the damage and going into the last quarter the score was 5-0. To the surprise of most, Malta did not cave in and goals from Keith Bajada and a Juan Sarcia penalty meant a final score of 5-2.
With the two top teams from each pool battling out in the semi-finals, the third and fourth placed team were placed in Pool C to decide the placings from 5th to 8th. The match against Lithuania was another story on one quarter gone wrong.
Going into the third quarter, Lithuania were leading 1-0 but in the space of a few minutes, they scored three goals, which left the Maltese reeling. Jonathan Borg pulled one back at the end of the third quarter and two quick goals from Keith Bajada and Christ Aguis at the start of the fourth brought Malta to within one goal of the Lithuanians. Unfortunately, the Maltese were caught out at the end and Lithuania won 5-3.
Malta’s final game of the tournament was against the highly rated Turkey side and finally Malta got the result that their efforts throughout the tournament deserved when they fought out a 1-1 draw. Keith Calleja was the scorer this time.
In comments given after the tournament, Hockey Association Malta President Gordon Mifsud said that despite the results he was satisfied that the group had gelled well and had given its full effort.
He was aware that despite its limited financial and human resources Malta had to increase its efforts to expose both the national team and clubs to matches that are more competitive since the players and skills are there.
He said that this was evident in the tournament where the team improved from match to match resulting in the good result against the strong Turkish side.