Singapore fail to overcome Chile in Hockey Junior World Cup

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Pictures by Les Tan/Red Sports

Sengkang Sports and Recreation Centre, Sunday, June 14, 2009 – Two late goals at the end of each half proved to be Singapore's undoing as they remained pointless in the 2009 Hockey Junior World Cup after going down 3-5 to Chile in a Pool I game.

Singapore began their first classification match on a high note as they scored the opening goal in the 7th minute, but they let their slim lead slip as they conceded three goals, two of which came in the last two minutes before the half ended.

After harsh words from the coach at half-time, the Singapore players came out fighting with a goal from Johnson Sivalingam (#16) and the equaliser by Muhammad Sabri (#5) from the penalty spot.

But Singapore hopes faded when Martin Rodriguze (Chile, #10) scored two goals in the last five minutes to seal the win and Chile's first points.

A penalty corner for Singapore in the 3rd minute was kept out by the Chilean goal keeper as Singapore started on a high note. Singapore soon took the lead when the Chilean keeper was left exposed and unable to keep out a tap-in by Singapore’s Enrico Elifh Marican (#8).

Chile soon change the tide of the game, however, as they carved chance after chance with Singapore constantly losing the ball in the middle of the field. It was just a matter of time before the equalising goal came and it did in the form of a penalty stroke.

Chile's penalty corner in the 20th minute was heading into goal before an illegal obstruction gave the South Americans a penalty stroke that Thomas Krussig (Chile, #5) took to send goalkeeper Brian Foo (#18) the wrong way.

Lucas Bottiger (Chile, #7) then forced an instinctive save from Brian Foo three minutes from half-time after he was put through with only the keeper to beat.

In the next minute however, Chile took the lead. Thanks to a lack of focus, Singapore conceded a penalty corner and Andrews Fuenzalida's shot eluded everybody to fly into the back of the net, giving Chile a 2-1 lead.

Things got worse for Singapore in the next minute as Pablo Thiermann capitalized on the lack of concentration by the Singapore defense and slipped the ball into the back of the net at the near post after his teammate made a fantastic run into the area from the left to leave the home side 3-1 down at half-time.

Singapore came out fighting at the start of the second half and they scored just three minutes after the restart. An open Johnson Sivalingam received the ball just inside the D and he had time and space to pick his spot before slotting it home, halving the deficit.

Both teams then tussled from control of the match with no clear cut chances from either side. Chile sat back and defended their slim 3-2 lead, but it didn't last long.

Johnson Sivalingam's darting run won Singapore a penalty corner in the 53rd minute and it soon become a penalty stroke when the goal-bound shot was blocked illegally by the Chileans.

Muhammad Sabri made no mistake from the spot as he sent the ball into the top left corner of the net, levelling the match with 18 minutes still left on the clock.

Singapore were then handed an immense advantage 11 minutes from time when Daniel Gremler (Chile, #12) was sent to the "sin-bin" for an elbow on Muhammad Sabri. But instead, it was the South Americans that went on the attack as they missed a penalty corner while Fernando Binder (Chile, #17) had a goal was disallowed after it was deflected off his teammate's leg six minutes from time.

A minute later, however, Chile were not to be denied. Poor marking allowed Martin Rodriguez (Chile, #10) to slot it into the back of the net after ball was threaded to him and he had all the time in the world put it beyond substitute goalkeeper Kevin Ng for a 4-3 Chilean lead.

Two minutes later, Rodriguez struck again. He ran rings around Singapore's leaky defense before hitting an unstoppable past a helpless Kevin Ng to seal a 5-3 win.

Singapore's coach Lim Chiow Chuan wasn't happy with his team's performance.

"We definitely didn't do enough to win this match, not with this kind of performance. We played poorly in the first half as we committed many unforced errors in midfield and lost the ball as a result. We also gave away cheap short corners."

"I wouldn't reveal what exactly I said at half-time, but it was harsh. In the second half, we played more cohesively and when the score was at 3-3, I thought we had a chance to win it. But credit to Chile as they were more focused and wanted to win more."

When asked are the chances for their next match against the USA, he said, "All four of the bottom teams are generally equal but with this kind of performance we will have slim chances of winning. The players have to realise that we haven't achieve anything yet even though there were good performances against Poland and New Zealand. But we can't be big headed and have to build on each performance."

N.B. The event is also known as the Standard Chartered Bank FIH Men’s Junior World Cup