KUALA LUMPUR: The national men's hockey team put up a better show this time, but it was not enough as they went down 2-1 to India yesterday in their last friendly match in the playing tour of Europe.
At the Zwolle Hockey Club in the Netherlands, the Indian team, who are preparing for the Paris Olympics, took the lead from a penalty corner in the 11th minute.
Two minutes later, Malaysia levelled the score off a penalty corner converted by Faris Harizan. But world No. 7 India struck the winner through a penalty corner converted in the 33rd minute.
National coach Sarjit Singh said the match saw a lot of good efforts from his men.
"A lot of improvement from the players, especially the defending structure in one-to-one situations.
"There are a lot of things that we need to improve on and we have identified the weaknesses which we will overcome for the team.
"But the team have shown some progress since our big margin defeat (10-1) to Germany."
World No 12 Malaysia went for seven friendly matches in Europe. They beat the Belgium B team 3-2 twice and lost once, 4-2.
But the Speedy Tigers were humiliated 10-1 by world champions Germany before bouncing back to beat German club Monchengladbach 9-2. They were later outplayed 5-0 by world No. 1 the Netherlands.
Malaysia scored a total of 19 goals and conceded 27 in seven friendlies.
The Speedy Tigers' next tournament is the Asian Champions Trophy in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, China from Sept 8-17.