Tom Boon, the 2025 World Player of the Year, showed the Speedy Tigers the way to scoring goals following Belgium’s 9-1 victory in the 31st Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh today.
The 36-year-old, known famously as the ‘Scoring Machine”, fired the Red Lions 1-0 ahead in the eighth minute of play from a penalty corner conversion.
Thomas Crols extended the lead to 2-0 in the 11th minute from a field goal. But the Malaysians came back strongly, surprising the Belgians when Faizal Saari scored a field goal in the 13th minute to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
Following the big-margin victory, Belgium, ranked world No 3, moved closer to qualifying for Sunday’s final having amassed 10 points, while the Malaysians drifted further down the ladder to fifth place on four points. Five-time champions India are in second spot (9 pts), followed by New Zealand in third spot (7 pts), Canada in fourth spot (4 pts) while South Korea sits at the bottom of the table with no points.
But the Belgians, who last played in the tournament in 2008 and finished in sixth place, showed fans of their superiority in world hockey by taking a 3-1 lead through Thibeau Stockbroekx efforts in the first quarter.
The 2018 World Cup champions, and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games gold medallists continued the demolition exercise with three more goals for a 6-1 lead at the interval. Roman Duvekot (24th, FG), Alexander Hendrickx (27th, PS) and Tommy Willems (30th, PC) scored the goals.
The Speedy Tigers’ bad streak came under further heavy bombardment in the second half. Boon converted a penalty stroke in the 38th minute, and Victor Foubert added to the equation with the seventh and eighth goals in the 41st minute. Belgium 8-Malaysia 1.
Roman Duvekot, who was instrumental in Belgium’s win against the Koreans earlier, continued his goal-scoring act in the 56th minute of the match. The final score stood at 9-1 for the ninth goal.
Meanwhile, following Friday’s rest day, the tournament will resume on Saturday. The matches scheduled are between Canada v India (2.0pm), New Zealand v Belgium (4.0pm) and Malaysia vs South Korea (6.0pm).
MALAYSIA: Sarjit Singh (Coach)
I think Belgium really played well. Therefore, it’s good; at least our boys know what our level is against them. So, we need to work hard.
We need to strengthen our basic strong. And we need to move the ball like how Belgium move the ball. When there is no gap, they transfer the ball back.
You see, even though when we push up on them, they’re all behind the ball. The whole team is behind the ball. And they just wait for opportunity and they have the patience.
Our boys, maybe we need to be patient a bit. But I mean, the score is not good, but we need to work harder. That’s all I can say.
They don’t rush back to defend. This is individual. Everybody should know when you lose the ball, you must run towards the goal, facing the opponent’s goal. Not running behind, facing your own goal. So, this is what happened just now. You need to run and you must be quick
BELGIUM: Shane McLeod (Coach):
So, we’ve been working with a group that’s very diligent in what they try and do, and tonight it all came together at the same time. So, we’re very, very happy with our team’s performance, and it’s kind of something that we’ve been searching for and trying to build towards, and tonight I thought we played really well.
You want for your players to do well, and we had a guy playing his first international game today. The guy’s worked hard so that he had a great experience. He kept his game very, very simple, and so on.
We are trying to get some good clips on stuff we did well, and then getting us ready to play New Zealand, which is a really interesting team that I have some connection with from way back.
