Malaysia shock India

Hosts Malaysia staged a grand rally to shock favourites India 2-1 in the 1st men's Champions Challenge hockey tournament at the National hockey stadiium, in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, on Monday.

The result put Malaysia on top of the six-team table with 9 points from three outings.

For India, it was their first defeat, following a 1-0 victory over Belgium and a 2-2 draw against South Africa.

In the earlier matches, Japan also scored an upset victory, beating South Africa 3-2, while Argentina beat Belgium 3-1..

Like so many matches in the past, the Indians have only themselves to blame for the reverse. They had the hosts under tremendous pressure in the first half and should have been more than just a goal to the good in that period had it not been for a tale of wasted opportunities.

Prabhjot Singh put India ahead in the 24th minute but goals by Chua Boon Huat and K.Keevan Raj in the 50th and 60th minutes respectively saw Malaysia pull off a remarkable upset.

India launched a solid assault thereater but the Malaysian defence of Roslan Jamaluddin in goal and Maninderjit Singh, Nor Azlan Bakar, Chua Boon Huat and Madzli Ikmar withstood the pressure.

It was indeed not India's day as they even failed to convert a penalty-stroke, with Jugraj Singh hitting the upright to the delight of some 5,000 roaring fans.

Malaysia's win evoked memories of their semi-final defeat of India in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, also held at the same venue.

India were also unable to make any of their five penalty-corners count whereas Malaysia were able to convert one out of three.

The Indians took the lead while Malaysia were down to 10 men, with Keevan Raj being sent off. Baljit Singh Dhillon won a ball in midfield, skipped past two challenges and laid the ball on for Prabhjot Singh to blast a shot past Roslan.

Ironically, the home team scored both their goals when India were also one man short, with Baljit Singh Dhillon yellow-carded.

First Chua smashed in a ball from an acute angle to bring the scores level in the 47th minute. Then Malaysia went ahead with a brilliantly-worked set piece short corner - Keevan Raj delivering the coup de grace in the 55th minute.

India have four points and will take on Japan on Wednesday while the host nation meet Argentina.

The tussle on the pitch may have been intense, but both the Malaysian and Indian camps held a friendly joint press conference.

Malaysian coach Paul Lissek said: "It was a clear improvement by the team today. We were tactically sound. The team did not have a weak period in the game, the defence was good and the teamwork excellent. We can come close to the top teams now."

Indian coach Cedric D'Souza said it was an even hard-fought match between both teams. "It could have gone either way, but we squandered too many chances."

Teams:
MALAYSIA: Roslan Jamaluddin, Maninderjit Singh, Chua Boon Huat, S. Kuhan, Nor Azlan Bakar, Jiwa Mohan, Mohd Madzli Ikmar, Tajol Rosli Mohamed, Mohd Rodhanizam Radzi, K. Keevan Raj, Mirnawan Nawawi (K. Gobinathan, Chairil Anwar Aziz, K. Logan Raj, S. Shankar)

INDIA: Jude Menezes, Lazarus Barla, Thirumal Valavan, Sukhbir Singh Gill, Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Jugraj Singh, Daljit Singh Dhillon, Arjun Halappa, Bipin Fernandez, Vikram Pillay (Prabhjot Singh, Deepak Thakur, Gagan Ajit Singh)

UMPIRES: Steve Graham (WAL), Jason McCracken (NZ)

Japan score first win

Japan recorded their first by grabbing the winning goal against a South African side down to nine men late in the second half.

The rising sons of hockey came from behind twice and then grabbed the winner to bring the Africans down to earth. In their first two matches, South Africa had surprisingly beaten Argentina and drew with India, the two pre-tournament favourites.

Japan, who have been impressive in the tournament with their breakaway raids, had gone down fighting 1-0 against Malaysia and 2-1 versus Argentina.

On Monday, the Japanese were finally able to make their hard-running and aggressive play count. First, Ryuji Furusato cancelled out Mike Cullen's eighth minute strike with a goal in the 25th minute by latching onto a rebound off a penalty corner attempt to push the ball into the net.

In the second half, Justin King restored South Africa's lead in the 43rd minute with a short corner flick that hit Japanese goalkeeper Yasuhiro Nobui and looped into the goalmouth.

The Japanese then piled on the pressure and in the 51st minute, Takahiko Yamabori levelled the score with a field goal.

The Africans were dealt a blow several minutes later when first, Clyde Abrahams was sent to the sin bin, to be followed a short while later by Gareth Murray.

Japan went on the attack and off a penalty corner in the 58th minute, Naohiko Tobita sounded the board with a direct hit.

Japanese manager Nagai Toichi later said: "I'm a bit disappointed with the scoreline as we had many chances but only converted three."

South African coach Rob Pullen also expressed disappointment with the overall performance of his boys, saying they made too many errors.

Argentina back in contention

Argentina are back on track after notching their second win in as many days.

On Sunday, the South Americans downed Japan 2-1 and their shock loss to South Africa on the opening day now seems a distant memory.

Mario Almada, with a field goal in each half, and Santiago Capurro - also with a field goal - were on target for the Argentines to condemn Belgium to their third defeat out of three played. The European team had earlier in the tournament lost to India (0-1) and Malaysia (0-2).

The Belgians' only consolation was that they managed to get on the scoresheet for the first time with an 18th minute field goal by Fabian Berger.

Argentine marksman Jorge Lombi had another disappointing outing with his penalty corner attempts. The Argentines had eight attempts from the short corner but uncharacteristically failed to convert a single one.

In contrast, the Belgians had two penalty corners and only three shots at goal as against Argentina's nine.

Argentina face host nation Malaysia on Wednesday while Belgium take the field against South Africa tomorrow.

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