MJWC: Only A Win Will Do For Malaysia
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| Malaysia |
July 4, 2005 
Bernama
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R. Lakshimi Devi
ROTTERDAM, July 3 (Bernama) -- Malaysia must beat Belgium, Tuesday to keep their fight for fifth/eight placing alive in the 8th Junior Hockey World Cup tournament at the Rotterdam Hockey Club.
Malaysian coach Sarjit Singh said a win was possible if his boys could produce the same level of performance as they did against Australia, Sunday.
"Belgium is a good side. I watched them play yesterday when they held Argentina 0-0 yesterday. Belgium's strong points will be their defence and their goalkeeper.
"They also have good, hard running forwards. When they come up, their entire forward line and midfield come up together, which means our defence must not make careless mistakes," he said.
Malaysia chalked up a credible 3-3 draw against tournament favourites Australia in their opening second round match of the World Cup Sunday.
The Malaysians led the Australians twice but lapses in concentration in a highly charged match allowed their opponents to snatch a face-saving draw.
"It was clearly our game but the poor marking by the defence saw us conceding three goals. The defence cannot make such mistakes if we want to win tomorrow," said Sarjit.
Belgium's coach Pascal Kina said he expected Malaysia to come all out to collect the three points just like them and hoped it would be a highly exciting match for both teams.
"Malaysia will be trying to get three points out of us. Similarly, we will be trying to outdo them. Overall it is going to be a very exciting game for both teams.
"I have not seen Malaysia play before, but we have video tapes of them playing here. We will be watching them before coming up with a tactical approach. I think the team with the better tactical approach will win the game," he said.
Belgium have two sturdy midfielders to watch out for -- Henry Cavenaille and Jeremy Muylaert, who are fast and accurate in passing the ball to their forwards.
"These two players are playing in the senior squad and have the experince playing at higher level. I expect them to be the main feeders to the forward line tomorrow," he said.
Kina said Belgium were not thinking about the classification match just yet but were looking into improving their performance game by game.
"We are just happy to be in the second round. We are taking it game by game. We managed to hold Argentina 0-0, which is a good sign. Hopefully, we continue to improve from here," he said.
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