Hockey World Cup: Spain triumph in shootout after hard-fought contest with spirited Malaysia

In an exciting match to start off the crossover stage of the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup, Spain got the better of Malaysia in the penalty shootout’s sudden death stage. This was after the match ended in a 2-2 stalemate following 60 minutes of regulation time.

Spain took the bold move of bringing in Mario Garin for the shootout after Adrian Rafi had manned the goal for the entirety of the match. The shootout started on a bad note for Spain as Alvaro Iglesias missed the first attempt. However, Marhan Jalil missed Malaysia’s third attempt to level up the scores.

Both teams missed their last attempt in the first round of the shootout to take the due into sudden death. There, Spain’s Marc Miralles scored on the very first attempt while Firhan Ashari missed on his turn to give the Spanish side a spot in the quarter-finals. They will now face Australia in the last-8 stage of the Hockey World Cup.

Spain dominate but without goals in first half

Spain had dominated the entire first quarter, almost spending the whole period attacking in the Malaysian half. However, the European side didn’t have the intense pace to trouble their opponents. The Malaysian side, on the other hand, managed just two incursions into the opposition’s circle, and they weren’t too promising.

The second quarter of this Hockey World Cup match saw Malaysia showing a bit more enterprise. They pressed high when the ball went in their opponents’ half. However, it was still Spain doing all the running and forced their Asian opponents to be on the defensive for most of the second quarter also.

Yet, for all their dominance of possession, the Spanish side didn’t create enough good chances to score. In the entire first half, the team in red just managed three shots on goal. This was partially due to the good defending from Malaysia, and partially due to lack of creativity and intensity from Spain.

The first half ended without a goal. Surprisingly, both coaches seemed happy in their halftime interviews with their respective teams’ efforts. The Malaysian coach wanted his team to be more confident with their attacking game in this Hockey World Cup match.

Exciting second half produces two goals each

Spain’s coach would also have wanted improvement in his team’s attacking manoeuvres, and it was visible at the start of the third quarter.

The Spanish side started playing at a greater pace and moving the ball around to stretch the Malaysian defense. However, their constant attacking mode created an opportunity for a quick counter-attack, and this brought the first goal of the match.

In the 35th minute, as Spain were attacking the Malaysian goal, a quick break for Malaysia saw Faiz Jali delivering a brilliant long pass from just behind the center-line in the Malaysian half.

Jali delivered the ball all the way to Faizal Saari just outside the Spanish goal. Saari trapped the ball brilliantly and enter the ‘D’, then unleashed a powerful shot from the top to beat the goalkeeper and give his team the lead.

This goal against the run of play must have given further impetus to Spain and their attacking intensity seemed to increase even more. A penalty corner for the Spanish team led to a penalty stroke as the ball went past the goalkeeper and struck the defender behind him.

Marc Miralles stepped forward to take the penalty stroke. The Malaysian goalkeeper Hafizuddin Othman took a chance and moved to his right but the shot went to the left and into the backboards of the goal post, levelling the score in the 41st minute.

Whether this affected the Malaysian team’s composure or not, Spain suddenly seemed even more threatening and doubled their lead in the very next minute. Pere Amat made a brilliant run into the circle from the right, along the baseline, dodging defenders, and gave a pass across which reached Xavier Gispert at the far post and the latter put that in to make it 2-1.

The wind seemed to have been taken out of the sails of Malaysia and Spain now looked on their way to the quarter-finals. But Malaysia were not going to stop fighting.

Malaysia fight hard before crashing out of Hockey World Cup

In the last quarter of this exciting Hockey World Cup match, the Malaysian team showed that they are not just a tough side when it comes to defending. Now, they bared their fangs. It seemed that Malaysia had levelled the score in the first few seconds of the fourth quarter when Amirul Azahar got a brilliant pass into the right-hand side of the ‘D’ and deposited it into the post.

However, Spain went for a referral and it was discovered that the pass from inside the last 25 had come after a back stick touch from the Malaysian attacker. The goal was disallowed.

However, Malaysia didn't give up their Hockey World Cup hopes and did actually level the scores in the 49th minute. After a melee in the circle that saw two Malaysian players trying to take a shot at goal at the same time and clanking their sticks, the ball deflected towards their right. Shello Silverius jumped on the opportunity and scored the crucial equalizer.

Both teams then fought hard in the remaining approximate 10 minutes, but neither let their guard down. The match headed to the shootout where Garin emerged from nowhere to take his team through to the next round of the Hockey World Cup.