Carolan: Back-to-Back Medals Prove Malaysia Are Building Something, Even Without the ACT Final

Malaysia didn’t get the final they wanted in Mohali. They got something else instead, and head coach Brendon Carolan thinks it matters just as much.

The Speedy Tigers beat South Korea 5-2 to take bronze at the Asian Champions Trophy, and that made it two medals in two tournaments after their silver at the Asian Games. Carolan didn’t pretend missing the final was fine. He said it plainly: of course you always want to be in a final. But he also said the margins were fine, and he’s right. Malaysia were a penalty corner or two away from the title match, and that stings in a different way than getting outplayed.

The bronze match itself was a proper scrap. Fitri Saari put Malaysia ahead in the second minute, then Korea hit back twice, Park Geun-woo from a penalty corner and Chun Semin in the 13th minute, and suddenly the Speedy Tigers were chasing the game. They didn’t panic. Faizal Saari dragged them level from a penalty corner in the 34th minute, Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal scored twice in the 45th and 50th minutes and took the Man of the Match award, and captain Marhan Jalil finished it off with another penalty-corner conversion in the 58th. Five goals, two of them from corners, after going behind. That’s a team with some backbone.

The Japan game is the one that got away

Carolan pointed straight at the pool match against Japan as the turning point. Malaysia couldn’t convert their penalty corners when it counted, and Japan went on to the final instead. “If we had delivered in those areas, we could have put ourselves in another final,” he said. Fair dues to Japan, he added, they played well. But you could hear the frustration underneath it. This wasn’t a coach making excuses. It was a coach who knows his team were close enough to touch it.

That’s the honest read on where Malaysia are right now. They’re not a side that turns up hoping for a medal anymore. They expect to be in finals, and they’re annoyed when they’re not. For a team that spent years as Asia’s nearly men, that’s a real shift in mentality.

Ipoh is next, and there’s barely time to breathe

The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup starts in Ipoh on 20 November, and Carolan was blunt about the preparation problem. The players go straight back to their domestic league commitments, so there’s no long camp, no slow build. “We will most likely meet at the tournament, have a couple of days of preparation, play a training match against Canada and then go straight into another tournament,” he said.

It’s not ideal, but it’s the reality of the calendar. Malaysia open against South Korea on 20 November, the same team they just beat for bronze, and then face Canada, the United States, Australia and Pakistan before the finals on 28 November. Australia are the big test in that group, and Carolan knows it. He also made it clear the Azlan Shah Cup isn’t just a standalone event. It’s part of a longer run towards the Olympic qualifiers, expected in about a year’s time, and he wants to blood a few younger players in Ipoh without throwing the tournament away.

That balance is the whole job for him now. Give the kids a taste, keep the results coming, and keep building towards the qualifiers. Two medals in two tournaments says the foundation is there. The next fortnight in Ipoh will show whether the depth is too.

For our money, Malaysia are the team to watch at home in Ipoh. They’ve got the goals, they’ve got a coach who won’t accept nearly, and they’ve got a crowd behind them. If the penalty corners click this time, they can beat anyone in the field.