KUALA LUMPUR: National women's coach Nasihin Nubli and his players had a fiery defensive lesson from a visiting New Zealand side at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil today.
But the women, preparing for the Valencia Olympic Qualifier on Jan 13-21, stood their ground even though NZ practically camped in their semi-circle, and only let in six goals.
In Valencia, Malaysia can expect a torrid time against higher ranked teams in Group B. Nasihin's team are ranked 18th while England (7th), Spain (8th) and Canada (16th) will be their opponents.
Kirendeep Kaur, who missed the Asian Games last year because of examinations at a local university, played her first international since Hangzhou, and even though she was in good form, she needed to release the ball faster.
"I did not play in the Asian Games because of examinations but have been clocking in regular training hours to keep fit. It was a difficult match against New Zealand, and I hope to give a better account against them in our second friendly on Saturday," said Kirendeep.
New Zealand will play in the Ranchi, India, Olympic Qualifiers, and they made a stopover in Malaysia to play two friendlies before heading to the tournament venue.
Coach Nasihin was not worried with the 6-0 scoreline against world No. 9 New Zealand.
"The scoreline does not matter as my players had many defensive lessons in this match, especially in penalty corner defence, and they did well to hold the higher-ranked team from running riot. The only problem was that three goals were scored early, and my players gave up early in the match.
"This is what we can't afford when we play England, Canada and Spain in the Qualifier. I will drill this into them in the second friendly," said Nasihin.
