Malaysia and Japan net hockey wins

Malaysia and Japan both recorded wins in pool A of the men's hockey tournament at Al-Rayyan Sports Club on Wednesday to stay in contention for semifinals places. Malaysia survived an early scare and came from behind to beat Hong Kong, China 2-1 at Al-Rayyan Sports Club. In the following match, Japan enjoyed a much more comfortable victory, 4-0 over Chinese Taipei.

Malaysia struggled in the opening stages of their game and Hong Kong, China capitalised, scoring the opener in the 13th minute. A communication breakdown between Malaysian goalkeeper Kumar Subramiam and defender Jiwa Mohan allowed a penalty corner by Arif Ali to sail past them and into the goal.

The goal appeared to be the wake-up call Malaysia needed and they equalised in the 21st minute through a penalty corner from Kuhan Shanmuganathan. Mohan then made amends for his earlier mistake by slotting Malaysia's second in the 29th minute.

Hong Kong, China almost snatched an equaliser in their last attack of the half when Ali raced clear towards goal, managed to dribble past the goalkeeper and fire a shot past Shanmuganathan, only to see the ball hit the post.

In the second half, Malaysia continued to struggle offensively, taking 18 shots on goal, but failing to convert their chances.

Afterwards, the relieved Malaysian coach Tan Wallace said, "We wasted a lot of chances, but the important thing is we got three points from the game. We knew we had to score a lot of goals in this game. We failed to do that as we are not accurate in front of goal.

Team manager Nur Azmi Ahamd added, "We were over-confident in this game. We thought we could defeat Hong Kong easily and we played too hurriedly, but overall I am satisfied with the win."

In contrast, Japan made short work of Chinese Taipei in a 4-0 win in their men's hockey match. Japan took a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute from a penalty corner scored by Kazuo Yoshida.

Takayasu Mizawa then doubled Japan's lead in the 29th minute. Mizawa's penalty corner hit was too good for Chinese Taipei's defence and Japan went into the break leading 2-0.

Japan's leading scorer Takahiko Yamabori added two more goals in the 41st and 61st minutes to put the result beyond doubt. His first was a field goal while his second was from a trademark drag flick off a penalty corner. Yamabori is now third in the leading scorers list with four goals.

Chinese Taipei's Chen Chih Wei played well in goal to keep the final scoreline to 4-0.

Afterwards, Japan manager Kyoichi Nagaya said: "Today we targeted to score as many as we could. Chinese Taipei tactically played a defensive game as they have only one player in our half and we couldn't make many chances because our top players were constantly under pressure by Chinese Taipei."

"We should have shown more spirit in trying to score and Chinese Taipei had this spirit in them when they defended us."

Meanwhile, the in-form Yamabori said: "I just needed to focus on attacking, but after some time I felt tired, but I had to keep on going. I am not satisfied as I didn't use the space well and I should convert my chances from penalty corners.

I pressured myself to get a lot of goals in the game and it made me rush things and Chinese Taipei' s defence was hard to break."

Asked if he had felt any tiredness from their match against Malaysia the previous day, he said: "I didn't feel any effects, we couldn't win the game, but we didn't lose either so I am taking it positively. The whole team morale was high before this game and we were motivated to do well and I am in my best condition."

The results mean that Malaysia now top pool A with five points from three games with two left to play. Japan and Pakistan both have four points from two games, although the latter have a superior goal difference. Chinese Taipei are fourth with three points from two games and Hong Kong, China prop up the table pointless after three games.

By 15th Asian Games, Doha 2006