On the second but last day of the Standard Chartered Bank FIH Junior Men's World Cup, Belgium benefitted from Faizal Saari's suspension and defeated the Malaysian hosts 3:2. Russia and Chile did battle for 17th place, with Chile taking the honors with a 5:3 win.

Belgium defeat Malaysia 3:2 (2:0)

Their last match in the tournament was always going to be an uphill battle for Malaysia after their fiery and talented leader and topscorer (author of 8 of Malaysia's 15 tournament goals) Faizal Saari was suspended for one match after picking up his third yellow card of the tournament in Malaysia's match against Egypt.

After a slow initial twenty minutes Belgium capitalized well on their advantage in the first half, leading the game, dictating play and building a two goal buffer, adding another just after halftime.

Little later, Malaysia got on the scoreboard first, while the Belgians seemed to be tiring, losing their earlier zeal and energy. They had enough gritty determination in them to defend the scoreline until the final whistle but it was just enough - Malaysia scored their second goal in the dying seconds of the match and might well have caused the Belgians trouble if the match had continued.

As it was, the Belgians celebrated their victory and claiming 11th place, while Malaysia finish the tournament as the 12th ranked team.

Chile defeat Russia 5:3 (1:1)

In the second match in Johor  Bahru today, Russia and Chile did battle for 17th place, and after a slow start, it was a highly entertaining and energetic match with plenty of goals.

From the start, Russia played aggressively and created a number of good opportunities from the get-go but failed time and again, with their shots either going wide or being warded off. Chile was not very dangerous in this early phase, and it looked like an easy win for Russia was on the table.

In the 27th minute, Sergey Bolshakov finally broke their goal spell as well, scoring from open play, but the gola shook Chile awake too, and still before halftime, Pablo Thiermann netted for the Southamericans to have the sides go into halftime at one all.

After the break, another ten minutes passed with the teams practically locked down and cancelling each other out, but Ilya Larikov's goal for Russia in the 44th minute not only gave Russia the lead back but also set the Chileans off on a goal scoring spree, putting away 3 in the next ten minutes for Chile to go from one down to two up.

Alexey Pozdnyakov was able to pull back a goal for the Russians once more, but only to find Martin Rodriguez scoring his second of the day for the 5:3 final score that makes Chile 17th in the tournament, while Russia finish in the 18th place.

 

Belgium - Malaysia 3:2 (2:0)
BEL - Felix DENAYER FG 26m
BEL - Simon GOUGNARD FG 35m
BEL - Amaury KEUSTERS FG 39m
MAS - Izwan Firdaus AHMAD TAJUDDIN FG 43m
MAS - Nadesh RAMANATHAN FG 70m

Russia - Chile 3:5 (1:1)
RUS - Sergey BOLSHAKOV FG 27m
CHI - Pablo THIERMANN FG 33m
RUS - Ilya LARIKOV FG 44m
CHI - Pablo SIEBERT PC 48m
CHI - Pablo SIEBERT PC 50m
CHI - Martin RODRIGUEZ FG 59m
RUS - Alexey POZDNYAKOV FG 59m
CHI - Martin RODRIGUEZ FG 68m