Mohamed Fitri Saari leads Malaysia to 3-2 victory over Japan in fourth match in Bukit Jalil
The striking young mid-fielder, Mohamed Fitri Saari, led the Malaysian national hockey team to a 3-2 important victory over Japan in the fourth match of the five test match series being played at National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Malaysia. With the
victory Malaysia levelled the series at 2-2.
In the first two of the previous three matches the Malaysians were defeated by the Japanese with the identical margin of 2-1 in both the games while in the third match they came back strongly and outclassed Japan 4-1 before levelling the series after winning
the fourth one.
The match was quite entertaining especially the first half in which both the teams scored twice while the second half featured a solitary late strike by the Malaysians that guided them to the victory.
The first half started with a lot of action as the Japanese won two penalty corners in the first 10 minutes of the first half but they failed to convert those chances into goals. However, it was Malaysia who took the lead in the 13th minute when
Izwan Firdaus opened the Malaysian account and ten minutes after the opener Mohamed Razie Abdul Rahim doubled the lead in the 23rd minute. Going down by two goals Japan made a solid reply in a short span of two minutes when Hiroki Sakamato gave
a double blow to Malaysia in the 26th and 28th minute, thus levelled the scoreboard just before the interval. However in the second half Mohamed Fitri Saari scored the winning goal in the 68th minute to lead his team to level
the series.
Tai Beng Hai, the Malaysian national coach stated that although his athletes are improving gradually day by day yet there is still a need to improve their weaknesses in order to build a strong unit.
“We gave away two soft goals because of mistakes in midfield and defence. However, we are tied 2-2 in the series and we need to go all out to win tomorrow to seal the series,” Beng Hai further added to his comments about the team’s performance in the match
as well as in the series.
The final match of the series will be played on Sunday, August 14 at the same venue.
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