Project 2013 squad manages to draw their second game by 1-1 against German National Juniors
Malaysia’s Project 2013 hockey squad exhibited a much improved performance in their second match of the European tour against the national junior side of Germany, which was played at Mannheim Hockey Stadium on Saturday, July 9. The match ended in a draw
at a score of 1-1.
In their first match of the tour the Malaysians were outclassed by the same German side by 6-3, while in their second match they showed a lot of improvement in their play.
Mirnawan Nawawi, the manager of the Project 2013 squad, looked very pleased at the performance of his players, especially in the defence, during the second match.
“It was a better performance compared to the match on Friday, especially the display of goalkeeper Mohd Hazrul Faiz. His timing during the penalty corner set piece moves was important as we stopped all five of their attempts. The defence marshalled by skipper
Mohd Nor Faeez and Mohd Zulhairi Hashim was also crucial as they cut off the German moves well before they had a chance to have a go at us in the D,” Nawawi stated about the improvement in the defence line which provide a great support to the goal-keeper as
well.
The match started with the German dominance at the initial stages of the match where they took the early lead in the third minute, when Jan Phillip Fisher scored a wonderful field goal. But after that the Germans really had to fight a tough battle to find
their way into the Malaysian net as the Malaysians were much clinical in their defence while their goal-keeper, Mohamed Hafzul Faiz, was simply at his best by saving five penalty-corners shots. The first half ended at 1-0 to German juniors.
The second half too was not entertaining as both the teams created some chances, but in vain. The Germans tried very hard to double their lead, but it was Malaysia which scored the equaliser just three minutes before the end of the game, when Mohamed Nor
Faeez Ibrahim converted their fourth penalty-corner into the goal. The score lasted remained the same until the end of the match.
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