IT’S OVER: Ireland destroy Olympic hopes
National coach Tai Beng Hai and goalkeeper S. Kumar are among the members of the national team who will be affected by MHC’s effort to revive hockey
MALAYSIA lost their ticket to the London Olympic Games after Ireland held them to a 1-1 draw in the Olympic Qualifier in Dublin yesterday.
The Irish, on a better goal difference, will play for the Olympics spot against South Korea today.
Malaysia started aggressively, as they went looking for an early goal, bringing with them an air of confidence which was not evident in this tournament thus far.
Their confidence received a boost when Shukri Mutalib slapped away a flick from an Ireland penalty corner in the seventh minute of the game.
Ireland then started dominating the match, but stout defending by Baljit Singh and goalkeeper S. Kumar kept the score at 0-0, with Malaysia relying only on counter-attacks.
Luck favoured the Malaysians time and again, as Ireland's shots towards goal went wide, much to the amazement of the capacity crowd at the UCD grounds.
The Irish played one of their worst matches of the Qualifiers, and rode on their luck, as Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin's reverse stick 10 seconds from the first half break hit the post and went out.
Malaysia injected some hope into their campaign when just five minutes into the second half, Nabil Fiqri scored off a goalmouth scramble.
The ball went from post to post, while Malaysia looked to increase their lead, while the Irish tried to salvage their St Patricks celebrations with only 24 minutes remaining in the match.
Ireland won their third penalty corner of the match in the 46th minute, but a super run-out by Baljit Singh cleared the ball.
With 21 minutes remaining, Malaysia held onto the slim lead, but still, not a single penalty corner was won by Tai Beng Hai's men until then.
An injury to Faizal Saari, and a green card to Madzli Ikmar reduced the strength of the Malaysian attack and defence as only 15 minutes remained in the match.
Ireland won their fourth penalty corner in the 56th minute, but Baljit sprinted out and took the full force of the ball on his body. He was badly injured, but Malaysia stayed alive.
Malaysia were in trouble in the 60th minute, when Fitri Saari was shown the yellow card, to sit out for five minutes with Ireland taking their fifth penalty corner.
That was what the Irish needed. John Jermyn flicked home the equaliser and Malaysia's hopes waned after that when Marhan Jalil was flashed the yellow, further reducing Malaysia's chances to win the match with only five minutes left.
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