KUALA LUMPUR: Coach Nasihin Nubli believes that the Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) hockey tournament is a stepping stone for better things to come for the Speedy Tigresses.
World No. 24 Malaysia put up a good fight against world No. 11 Japan before going down 4-1 in the third placing match at the Rajgir Hockey Stadium in Bihar, India, today.
Japan dominated the match and scored goals through Mayuri Horikawa (third), Hiroka Murayama (24th), Ayana Tamura (28th) and Miyu Hasegawa (35th).
Malaysia's solo goal came from Azmyra Mia Sofea Azhairy in the 48th.
Japan converted two of their eight penalty corners while Malaysia failed to score from two.
Malaysia suffered their ninth defeat to Japan in 11 meetings since the Olympic qualifier in Kakamigahara, Japan in 2012.
Nasihin said that the future of the team looks bright as the younger players have shown a lot of improvement.
"We were without five key players but the team showed good fighting spirit.
"But in the long run we need to work much harder to improve in areas like fitness and our technical game.
"We didn't start well in the first two quarters against Japan and they punished us by scoring three goals. But after changing some players' positions and play structure, we put up a better performance in the last two quarters and managed to score one goal," said Nasihin.
Despite failing to finish on the podium, Malaysia can be proud of their achievement as they were ranked only fifth in the tournament but finished ahead of world No. 15 South Korea who were fifth.
Malaysia ended their ACT campaign with two wins and five losses. Malaysia lost 4-0 to world No. 9 India, 5-0 to world No. 6 China, beat world No. 15 South Korea 2-1, lost to world No. 11 Japan 2-1 and beat world No. 29 Thailand 2-0.
In the semi-finals, Malaysia lost 3-1 to China and in the third placing match, they lost 4-1 to Japan.