In the first round of the men's group preliminaries of the 2007 International Hockey Tournament which began today at the Olympic Green Hockey Field, Australia beat Malaysia 2:0. The Malaysian team, with the support of their King who came specially to watch the game, withstood Australia's attacks in the first half of the match but failed to outplay its formidable opponents and Olympic champions at Athens 2004.

As the Athens Olympic champion, Australia is a world strong team with a level far above Malaysia, a world middle-leveled team in the world. The match remained dreary until Australia made a good shot before the penalty area in a counterattack in the 15th minute, but missed the goal narrowly.

Australia organized a threatening attack in the 25th minute by making a fast break to send in a cross, but the outflanking player missed the goal. Thereafter, Australia set off a round of attacks and won a short corner, but still failed to break the ice.

In the 29th minute, Australia intercepted a pass in the front court and won another short corner, but the shooter missed the goal again. Though without scoring a goal, Australia overwhelmed Malaysia.

Three minutes before the completion of the match, Australia made a successful fast break; No.6 Hammond received a pass to score an easy goal to break the ice. After that, neither of the teams scored a goal, Australia fished by a 1:0 lead over Malaysia.

After the start of the second half, Australia continued its offensive attacks, mounted two threatening attacks in a short period of three minutes and scored a second goal in the 4th minute, No.17 Smith received a pass in the right of the goal to score, putting Australia two goals ahead of Malaysia.

In the 12th minute, Australia organized a wonderful counterattack, but the shooter missed an easy goal. In the 16th minute, Australia won a short corner, but the forceful shot was blocked out by Malaysia's goalkeeper.

Subsequently, Australia became physically inefficient and committed turnovers in attacks, while Malaysia also failed to make effective attacks, the match ran into a long seesaw. In the 29th minute, a Malaysian front player fell to the ground without physical contact and was carried off the court for treatment, the cause was still unknown.

In last minutes, Australia recovered its offensive attacks, maintained the score to the end and clinched a victory over Malaysia by 2:0.