Hockey: Wallace proud of charges despite loss to France
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 -- The huge 0-4 defeat to France in the quarter-finals of the 2021 Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup yesterday, was definitely a bitter pill to swallow for the national squad, but head coach Wallace Tan says he is proud of the performance put in by his charges.
He said the players had shown good commitment and continued to remain positive in curbing attacks from the French despite conceding a large number of goals at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India.
"Although it is the first competition for the national squad after two years, the players have shown some positive action despite losing yesterday.
"I am proud of them, it is hoped that the players remain enthusiastic to face the Netherlands after this. I hope the supporters continue to pray for success for our team," he said in a video shared with the media today.
Malaysia will face the Netherlands to determine the fifth to eighth places in the table tomorrow.
Wallace also praised the efforts of his men who managed to prevent the European team from getting a field goal, with all their goals coming from penalty corners.
Meanwhile, Wallace explained that there was also a huge gap in terms of preparation between his line-up and the opposition, where the French team had eight players from their senior squad participating in the competition in India this time.
He said that the French side had prepared well as they will be using some of the players currently available to represent the senior squad for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
This, he said, was very different from the situation faced by his charges, who had to undergo virtual training due to the COVID-19 pandemic and only had time to undergo 18 days of physical training last September before going on a tour in the United Kingdom, recently.
French captain Timothee Clement scored a hat-trick against Malaysia through penalty corners in the 14th, 24th and 60th minutes to take the team to the semi-finals for the second time after emerging runners-up in the 2013 edition.
Aymeric Bergamo's squad scored another goal through a penalty corner completed by Mathis Clement in the 31st minute.
The Malaysian squad achieved its target of getting past the group stage in the competition by beating Chile 2-1 on Nov 24, before being tied 1-1 with Belgium (Nov 26) and beating South Africa 4-3 on Nov 27.
-- BERNAMA
