PETALING JAYA: It was a consolation prize worth celebrating for the Speedy Tigers. The national men’s hockey team ended their Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) campaign on a high by defeating South Korea 5-2 to clinch the bronze medal in Punjab, India, yesterday.
Old-hand Fitri Saari opened scoring in the second minute to get Malaysia got their third-place playoff to a flying start at the Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium.
South Korea, however, drew level through a Park Geun-woo penalty corner three minutes later before taking a 2-1 lead through Chun Se-min’s field goal in the 13th minute.
Undaunted, Malaysia fought back to level the scores at 2-2, courtesy of Faizal Saari’s 34th minute penalty corner goal, before Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal struck twice with field goals in the 45th and 50th minutes to put the Speedy Tigers 4-2 ahead. Marhan Jalil then sealed a convincing victory for Malaysia, making it 5-2 with a penalty corner conversion in the 58th minute.
The bronze-medal achievement saw Brendon Carolan’s charges improve on their performance at the 2024 edition in Hulunbuir, China, where they could only manage a sixth-placed finish.
Earlier, the Speedy Tigers were denied a final berth at the tournament after they lost 3-5 to Japan in the shootouts on Wednesday.
The semi-final match ended without a goal in regulation time.
Carolan rued Malaysia’s missed chance of making the final.
“We had loads of corners. I think it came down to not converting those chances during critical moments,” said Carolan.
“With a corner count that high, we should be winning that match.
“We had some good chances, but it’s a matter of not converting our penalty corners.”
Malaysia had five penalty corner chances during the game, compared to Japan, who were awarded one.
The national team have only made the final once in 2023, where they finished runners-up to India.
