By Tony Mariadass
National hockey coach Arul Anthoni Selvaraj while admitting to the superiority of the Indian team as they went down 0-5 yesterday at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai last night, but at the same time said Malaysia made them look good too.
India scored goals in the first, third and fourth quarter to keep their three unbeaten match record with goals from Karthi Selvam opening the scoring in the 15th minute, Hardik Singh (32nd) and Harmanpreet Singh (42nd) converted PCs to give India a 3-0 lead, before Gurjant Singh and Jugraj added two more goals within a minute (53rd and 54th) of each other to complete a rout.
India have now jumped to the top of the table with 7 points in three games, while Malaysia are second with 6 points.
“We gave too much of respect and room to the Indians. We were a second slower and a meter too far,” said Arul told Apa Khabar.
But at the same time Arul acknowledged: “ Of course they (India) are fourth (4th) in the world. Their energy, speed and sharpness was simply good.”
Against Japan today, Arul said: “We going for a win. A big bounce back with confidence if needed.
“We need to play our and trust and believe in ourselves.
“We need to be consistent on the individual performance.”
Japan coming off two consecutive draws – against India 1-1 and Pakistan 3-3 – will surely be looking for their first win after having lost their opening match narrowly 1-2 to Korea.
The battle to finish among the top four indeed is heating up and Malaysia after an impressive two consecutive wins over Pakistan and China, indeed needs to get to their winning ways against Japan to stay in the hunt for a semifinals berth.
It will certainly be a do or die mission for Arul’s soldiers.
MALAYSIA’S REMAINIG FIXTURES : Today: v Japan (6.30pm); Aug 9: v South Korea (8.45pm
Asian Champions Trophy 2023 hockey group stage results and scores
August 3, Thursday
Korea 2-1 Japan
Malaysia 3-1 Pakistan
India 7-2 China
August 4, Friday
Korea 1-1 Pakistan
China 1-5 Malaysia
India 1-1 Japan
August 6, Sunday
China 1 Korea 1
Pakistan 3 Japan 3
Malaysia 0 India 5
August 7, Monday
Japan vs Malaysia
Pakistan vs China
Korea vs India
August 9, Wednesday
Japan vs China
Malaysia vs Korea
India vs Pakistan
Asian Champions Trophy 2023 hockey knockout/classification round
August 11, Friday
Fifth place game – Fifth in group vs Sixth in group
Semi-final 1 – Second in group vs Third in group
Semi-final 2 – First in group vs Fourth in group
August 12, Saturday
Third place game – Loser semi-final 1 vs Loser semi-final 2
Final – Winner semi-final 1 vs Winner semi-final 2
2023 Asian Champions Trophy Table
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 1 | India | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 3 | +10 | 7 |
| 2 | Malaysia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 7 | +1 | 6 |
| 3 | South Korea | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 5 |
| 4 | Japan | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 2 |
| 5 | Pakistan | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 2 |
| 6 | China | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 13 | −9 | 1 |
Leave a Reply