Malaysia Will Play For Pride Friday
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| Malaysia |
July 7, 2005
Bernama
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R. Lakshimi Devi
ROTTERDAM, July 7 (Bernama) -- Malaysia have nothing to look forward to but play for pride when they face Egypt for 9th to 12th classification match in the 8th Junior Hockey World Cup, here Friday.
Malaysia only needed a draw to oust Pakistan from third or fourth position in Pool F, but conceded a penalty corner with seconds remaining.
The 2-1 win over Malaysia ensured Pakistan a berth for the 5th to 8th position playoff.
"Anything can happen in a game. Every second counts. We lost to Pakistan at the very last seconds and it cost us our initial target of 5th to 8th placing.
"Although the loss dashed our dream of finishing 5th in the World Cup, we will keep fighting. We will go all out for a win against Egypt," said skipper Engku Abdul Malek Engku Mohamad.
He said Malaysia would now aim for 9th placing in the tournament.
"We will be playing for pride now. We are a good side and luck just seemed to desert us at a crucial time, but we are not going to let that demoralise us. Instead, we will fight till the end.
"I know we are named as the unlucky team of the tournament by other players and officials but what matters most to us now is that we played good hockey and maintained our standard throughout the World Cup," he said.
Malaysian coach Sarjit Singh said the team would not look back and drown on "what if", instead they would be looking forward on how to improve their placing in the World Cup.
"We can't be looking backward and feel sad for ourselves, we can't turn back time. We can only look forward and try for a better finish.
"It is disappointing, especially when we could have gone into the semi-finals but that should not be on our mind now. Instead we will be concentrating on playing Egypt now," he said.
Sarjit said Egypt would not be an easy team to play as they had solid defence. "None were able to get past their defence easily. But we will be looking at the tapes of their games and will see what is the best way to play them tomorrow," said Sarjit.
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