National juniors must top group to stay in hunt for medal

The National Juniors must finished on top their group during the preliminary round of the Junior World Cup if they want to stay in the hunt for a medal.

The tournament will be jointly hosted by Malaysia and Singapore from June 7-21.

Under the new format, the matches for the second round will also follow a round-robin system before the knockout stage.

In the first round the 20 teams are divided into four groups of five teams each.

Group A and C matches will be played in Johor Baru while Groups B and D matches will be held in Singapore.

Malaysia along with Spain, England, South Korea and the US are in Group C while the Group A teams are defending champions Argentina, Belgium, Egypt, Pakistan and Russia.

The teams in Group B are Australia, Chile, Germany, Japan and South Africa while Group D has India, Holland, New Zealand, Poland and Singapore.

In the second round the top two teams from each group will then be divided into two groups of four teams.

One group will play in Johor Baru while the other in Singapore. Each country will also host one semi-final match each. The final will be played in Johor Baru.

The third and fourth placed teams in each group will vie for the positions nine to 16. They will also be placed in two group of four teams each and play a round-robin format before moving to the play-off stages.

Malaysian coach K. Rajan said that they are aware of the format and for the initial stage they need to aim for a top-two finish.

“It is going to be a tough tournament as we have three other teams that are capable of going to the play-off stage. We understand that there is no quarter-final stage for this tournament,” he said.

In the medal groupings for the second round the champions from Group A and D along with the runners-up from Group B and C will form one pool while the champions from Group B and C along with the runners-up from Group A and D will play in the other group.

The venues for the second round matches will be decided after the first round ends.