Malaysia 6, Russia 2

Russia put up a good fight, but in the end the strong short corners of Malaysia were too tough to overcome as the Malaysians earned their second victory at the Electric Ireland FIH Road to London tournament in Dublin with a 6-2 victory.

Muhamad Amin Rahim unlocked the mystery to beating the Russians as he put in three goal beating Russian goaltender twice on a penalty corner and once on a penalty stroke. All three goals beat the Russian on the high glove side.

Russia netted it’s only offense on quick pair of goals from Pavel Golubev coming less than a minute apart in the 18^th minute. The first goal was thanks to a show of skills from the crafty forward and the follow up was thanks to a lapse in the Malaysian defense that committed a massive turnover mistake creating the 2-0 chance.,

Rahim countered with his first penalty corner goal, but it was still a tight 2-1 game at the break.

Rahim struck again with a near photocopy short corner goal two minutes into the second half to put the teams back on equal footing. Seven minutes later Malaysia took its first lead of the game when Gafarov was beat yet again on the high on the penalty corner, this time Faizal Saari did the honors.

Malaysia didn’t mess with the formula that worked and put in yet another penalty corner to open up the 4-2 lead. From there the Asian nation rolled, Rahim scored on a penalty stroke with 16 minutes left in the game, but for Russia it was clear that any hope of a first victory at this tournament was still well out of reach.

The player of the game was Malaysia’s #23 Jalil Abdul Tengku.