KUALA LUMPUR: National men’s team head coach A. Arul Selvaraj (pix) is not about to ring the alarm bells although they lost 3-2 to Spain in a friendly in India today, ahead of the start of the 2023 Hockey World Cup on Friday (Jan 13).
The coach said today’s friendly was for him to test out some tactical moves and that, despite the defeat to world number eight Spain, he is confident that his Speedy Tigers will step up to the plate when they begin their Group C campaign against the Netherlands on Saturday (Jan 14).
“A very good decision in terms of our tactical approach. Although we played a shortened match, we displayed a good performance. My hope is that we can translate that to a victory against the Netherlands and, thus, be the catalyst for our remaining group matches,” he said in a video link shared with the media today.
Earlier, in the friendly against Spain, Malaysia’s goals were scored by Norsyafiq Sumantri and Muhammad Aminuddin Mohd Zain.
After taking on three-time world champions the Netherlands, world number 11 Malaysia will face Chile (world number 22) on Monday (Jan 16) before wrapping up their Group C fixtures against New Zealand (world number nine) on Jan 19.
According to the competition format, the four group champions will advance to the quarter-finals while the second- and third-placed teams from each group will square off in a knockout playoff to vie for a place in the last eight.
Group A comprises Australia, Argentina, France and South Africa; Group B has Belgium, Germany, Japan and South Korea; while Group D consists of India, England, Spain and Wales. -Bernama
