Malaysia

Hosts Malaysia ended their campaign in sixth spot when they lost 1-2 to Spain in the fifth and sixth placings play-off match of the 13th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil, here Sunday.

Malaysia, playing superbly in the opening half as they took a 1-0 lead through a field goal by Chua Boon Huat, failed to maintain that slender lead as two costly mistakes by M. Jiwa and K. Gobinathan later in the match paved the way for the Spanish team to find the goals.

Spain earned four penalty corners in the second half which showed their domination but they levelled the score through a field goal by their top scorer Santiago Freixa in the 49th minute, thanks to an unforced error by Jiwa.

Freixa took the ball from Jiwa, who kept it too long, before sending it past Malaysian goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin, who had a very good game earlier when he saved at least four out of Spain's six short corners.

Then 12 minutes before the end, Spain found the winning goal off another blunder by Malaysian defender Gobinathan. Alberto Esteban collected the ball from him outside the 25-yard area and dribbled it into the D before slotting it past Roslan.

Malaysia, who finished sixth out of seven nations after the round-robin stages, caught many by surprise when they performed well in the opening half and gave problems to the Spanish side in the hot afternoon weather.

The hosts opened accounts off a fast counter-attack when striker Tajol Roslie Mohamad took a loose ball and passed it to Azlan Misron on the right. Azlan wasted no time to pass it on to the unmarked Boon Huat on the left who had no problem sending it into the opponents' net.

Malaysia's head coach Paul Lissek said his charges gained a lot of experience and knowledge from the seven matches they played in the 10-day tournament.

"The second Spanish goal gave me a shock because we were really good in the first half. Probably they were too shy in the second half and thought that a 1-0 win was enough. It was a good learning process for them for the Olympic Games qualifier in March," he told reporters after the match.

Malaysia: Roslan Jamaluddin, Muhamad Amin Rahim, K. Logan Raj, S. Kuhan, K. Gobinathan, M. Jiwa, Tajol Roslie Mohamad, K. Keevan Raj, Ismail Abu, Azlan Misron, Norazlan Rahim.

Substitutes: S. Kumar, Chua Boon Huat, S. Shanker, Madzli Ikmar Mohd Nor, Riduan Nasir.

Spain: Bernardino Herrera, Santiago Freixa, Marc Garcia-Cascon, Francisco Fabregas, Juan Escarre, Alex Fabregas, Pol Amat, Ramon Alegre, Victor Sojo, Jaime Perez, Ignacio Alborch.

Substitutes: Javier Bruses, Alberto Esteban, Xavier Ribas, Albert Sala, David Alegre.

Umpires: Kim Hong-lae (South Korea) and Stewart Dearing (Australia).

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