A resurgent Spain gave a demonstration of class hockey to a Great Britain side who quite simply failed to step up to the mark here in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon. The rain, which had fallen steadily all day, failed to dampen the spirits of a Spanish side who announced their return as a top team by beating Australia yesterday. To give GB full credit, it did take Spain all of 22 minutes to penetrate their defence, and up to that point GB had displayed some interesting play.. However, all too often promising moves were broken down by passes to marked players or by trying to force the ball through packs of defenders. Two goals towards the end of the first half, one from Ramon Alegre from a penalty corner, and the second in open play off the stick of an allegedly unfit Santiago Frexia, marked Great Britain’s card and after that all the more promising traffic was one way. Alegre scored his second from open play in the second half, followed by a cracker from the edge of the circle by Eduard Arbos, which left Ali McGregor in the GB goal without a hope. Goal number five was from a corner and was scored by Victor Sojo. After the match, coach Jason Lee, was in no mood for making excuses. “We were appalling doing what we would normally do. After an international match one should normally be tired, but my players are relatively fresh.” Maurits Hendriks, the coach of the Spanish side, commented after the match, “The good news is that we are back in the tournament.”
Pictures from this match will appear on this blog soon. A full review of todays proceeding will follow later.
