KUALA LUMPUR: The national men’s hockey team managed to hold South Korea to a 2-2 draw in their opening Super 4 clash in the Asia Cup 2022 Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia today.
Ashran Hamsani emerged as the saviour of the national team when he scored the equaliser in the second half, thus denying South Korea the chance to avenge their slim 5-4 loss to the Speedy Tigers in a Group B match on Tuesday (May 24).
In today’s Super 4 clash at the Gelora Bung Karno Hockey Stadium, Group B champions Malaysia had earlier gone 1-0 up through a third-minute penalty corner goal by defensive stalwart Razie Abd Rahim, which is also his ninth goal in this campaign.
However, the Malaysians’ joy was short-lived as Lee Nam-yong then made it 1-1, also through a penalty corner set piece, in the 12th minute before teammate Jeong Jun-woo put the South Koreans 2-1 ahead with a field goal in the 21st minute.
National head coach A Arul Selvaraj’s men then continued to pound the South Korean goalmouth and they finally got the deserved equaliser when Ashran capitalised on a defensive lapse to score a field goal in the 40th minute.
The national team, however, only has itself to blame for failing to get all three points due to their profligacy.
Meanwhile, Arul Selvaraj said that while he was disappointed with the draw, he was delighted with the effort put in to avoid an opening loss at the Super 4 stage.
“The players put in a huge effort in terms of positioning and ball-handling, but I am disappointed as we gave away a silly penalty corner that led to the South Korean drawing level at 1-1,” he said.
Malaysia, who have qualified for the World Cup 2023 after advancing to the Super 4, are set to meet India tomorrow before wrapping up their round-robin fixture against Japan on May 31.
The top two teams in the Super 4 competition will then vie for the Asia Cup 2022 trophy in the final on June 1.
