THE national team performed ‘act two of their comedy show’ in the 4-2 defeat to World No 32 Italy in Monday’s final Group B match of the FIH Series Finals at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
But the joke was on them, as nobody else was in the mood to laugh at their pathetic antics.
The result is a new low for Malaysian hockey. The World No 13 will now play Wales in Wednesday’s crossover playoff.
Canada will face China in the other playoff, while Italy and Group A champions Austria have earned direct entries into the last four.
When Malaysian coach Roelant Oltmans was asked what went wrong?
"Everything, I'm shocked and disappointed because I never expected this result. I can feel the anger of Malaysian hockey fans.
"All I can say to them (fans) is that we will perform much better against Wales on Wednesday and bring back their faith in the team," said Oltmans.
Italy coach Robert Da Ga said they did not think about the possibility of winning.
"My prediction was a 4-4 draw as I believed in my team but I was only half right. We played world class hockey, all 18 players deserve this victory for giving their 100 percent," said Da Ga.
Italy made very few mistakes, and deservingly took a ninth-minute lead off their first penalty corner.
It was delivered by Thomas Keenan, whose floating attempt beat goalkeeper Hairi Rahman on his right side.
Hairi used both his hands like a soccer goalkeeper to stop the attempt and was promptly replaced with second goalkeeper Hafizuddin Othman.
The first half saw many hasty attempts at goal, and luckily Faizal Saari's penalty corner drag in the 26th minute tied the match going into the half-time break.
Italian captain Agustin Nunez handed his mates a temporary lead in the 31st minute, but Razie Rahim cancelled it via Malaysia's fourth penalty corner in the 35th minute.
However, the day belonged to Italy as Nunez scored his second in the 43rd minute before Francois Sior added the fourth in the 45th minute.
RESULTS: Group A: Canada 6 Belarus 2, Wales 0 Austria 2; Group B: Malaysia 2 Italy 4, China 3 Brazil 2.
FINAL STANDINGS
GROUP A
P W D L F A Pts
AUSTRIA 3 2 0 1 8 2 6
CANADA 3 2 0 1 9 6 6
WALES 3 2 0 1 5 4 6
BELARUS 3 0 0 3 3 13 0
GROUP B
P W D L F A Pts
ITALY 3 3 0 0 9 3 9
MALAYSIA 3 1 1 1 12 8 4
CHINA 3 1 1 1 8 8 4
BRAZIL 3 0 0 3 2 12 0
ends/