No sweet ending
Depleted Malaysian side finish fourth behind South Korea
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will return home empty-handed from the Nations Cup after losing to South Korea again.
The Speedy Tigers fought gallantly but battling without eight regulars turned out to be a tall order as they fell 0-4 in the bronze medal playoff in Potchefstroom, South Africa yesterday.
The Koreans settled for third spot through field goals from Seo In-woo (22nd minute) and Lee Nam-yong (26th minute) while Hwang Tae-il and Jang Jong-hyun converted penalty corners in the 39th and 59th minutes to frustrate Malaysia.
They had earlier lost 1-0 to the Koreans in the group stage.
They were in different form two weeks ago when they defeated South Korea 3-2 en route to winning the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh but it was tough for the understrength Tigers to match their Asian rivals who are in South Africa with their full-strength squad that would likely play at the World Cup in India from Jan 13-29.
The Tigers came to South Africa without five experienced players and injuries to midfielder Nik Aiman Nik Rozemi and in-form striker Shello Silverius during the tournament had increased the burden on the players.
Aiman and Shello did not start a match and were replaced by striker Ramadan Rosli and defender Syarman Mat Tee in the squad of 18.
The other players who have already picked up injuries prior to the tournament are defenders Marhan Jalil and Syafiq Hassan, strikers Shahril Saabah, Muhajir Abdu Rauf as well as reserve goalkeeper Zaimi Mat Deris.
National coach A. Arulselvaraj stated that some players had even played in different positions during the group stage but despite that, Malaysia managed to bounce back from a 1-0 defeat to South Korea in their opening match to qualify for the semi-finals from Group B.
They beat Canada 3-2 and Japan 5-1 to earn their last four berth but could not raise their performance against Ireland where they lost 0-3 in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Arul said Malaysia couldn’t quite raise their performance and failed to make their customary fightback in the third and fourth quarters.
“In the match against Ireland, although we had better possession, they scored due to our errors and (goalkeeper) Hafizuddin (Othman) did well to make a lot of saves. If not it could have been five or six. We did not put in enough effort and energy,” admitted Arul.