Mighty Netherlands (popularly known as Oranjes) rode on splendid hat-tricks by Luke Dommershuijzen (4th, 14th and 34th minutes) and Miles Bukkens (3rd, 38th and 60th minutes) to maul Malaysia 9-3 in a 5th-8th place match of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
While David Hussen (51st and 57th minutes) scored a brace, Max De Bie (37th) found the target once for the winning team.
For Malaysia, Muhammad Khalid (41st), skipper Akhimullah Anuar (59th) and Firadus Rosdi (60th) pierced the net once each.
The Oranjes dominated the proceedings completely right from the start and opened their account as early as in the third minute of the match. They doubled their lead in the next minute and till the first quarter they struck thrice. In the second quarter also their dominance continued as they netted one more goal.
After the second half, Malaysia came back from the initial shock and tried to give some challenge to the opposition, but it was proved not to be enough. While Netherlands found the target five times, Malaysia showed little signs of improvement by scoring as many as three goals.
Netherlands will meet Belgium for the fifth place match tomorrow.
“We were hopeful of at least a quarterfinal finish, but things didn’t go our way. But we showed our prowess against a doggy Malaysia team today,” said Netherlands captain Silas Lageman.
“We are looking forward to our next match against Belgium. We have not performed well against the Red Lions of late and are hopeful of an improved show in our next match,” said Lageman.