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 Malaysia stuns India Hosts, Australia scrape through to men's field hockey finals
Posted: Saturday September 19, 1998 02:04 PM
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Malaysia stunned India 1-0 and Australia scraped past England 3-2 as the Commonwealth Games men's field hockey semifinals were both decided by golden goals Saturday. Playing before a 20,000-strong home crowd, Malaysia's captain Mirnawan Nawazi deflected the ball into the Indian goal off a penalty corner in extra time. Both teams failed to score during a regulation time clearly dominated by the Indian team. In the women's section, Australia and England moved to the finals. Olympic champion Australia thrashed New Zealand 7-3 and England scored a goal in each half to beat favored India 2-0. In the first men's semifinal, Michael Brennan breezed past English defenders to score an extra time golden goal and push Australia into the finals. Locked 2-2 at the final whistle after a match that was fast-paced but full of missed opportunities for both sides, Brennan snatched the ball away during an English charge and zigzagged his way past two dazed defenders for the winning goal. The goal came in the second minute of extra time. After a drab and barren first half, England came back from the breather more energetic and began assaulting Australia immediately. They struck in the 56th minute when Jon Wyatt deflected the ball from Russell Garcia in a penalty corner. But Australia retaliated within two minutes with Matthew Smith equalizing with a field goal. With minutes to go for the final whistle, the aggressive English side was back in front with Garci scooping a penalty corner shot past the flailing arms of Australian goalkeeper Damon Diletti. Australia equalized with Jeremy Hiskins exploiting a defensive lapse to tap the ball into the English goal in the 72nd minute. Many of the English players were in tears at the end, and Australian coach terry Walsh admitted fortune had favored his team. ”The most important outcome was the character of the team that came through, and it was right across the board, it wasn't any one individual,” Walsh said. “It was a difficult match and we were out of it on a couple of occasions and the character of the guys to come back was really good.” For India, the 1975 world champion, it was an evening of missed chances. Despite dominating play and securing eight penalty corners against Malaysia's three, the once-famed team from the subcontinent failed to convert. India came close to scoring when captain Dhanraj Pillay, finding himself with just goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin to contend with, misdirected the shot by just a fraction and the ball rolled past the goalpost. In the run up to the semis, Australia, which romped into the semis topping Group A, has won four of its five matches, a shock 2-3 defeat by South Africa the only blemish in its campaign. England, coached by former Australian star Barry Dancer, reached the semifinal finishing second best to Malaysia in its pool. The team may have had a better chance with the presence of penalty corner specialist Calum Giles, who has been left out of the side following the new rules prohibiting substitution during set-pieces. Australia have beaten England twice this year - 4-2 in the Azlan Shah Tournament at Ipoh, Malaysia, and 3-0 at Utrecht, where England was placed sixth, two places behind Australia.
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