Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Lost but still stand tall

 Malaysia had to accept the strength of mighty Thailand yesterday in Bangkok at AFF cup.

Going with 1 goal advantage was not god enough as Thailand scored 3 back. The thai team came will full strength on attacking mode and capitalised the silly mistakes of Malaysian Players. During the 1st half, there were only 1 shot on target and overall of 3, which is poor for a semifinal match, and Thai controlled 67% of the game. 

With this, quest for 2nd cup and 1st sup after 13 years still in waiting. 

1st of all, we have to understand that Kim Pang Gon had to come with 2nd team as main 11 to 13 players who were from JDT were not released by the club, as AFF was not FIFA sanctioned tournaments. That's where VAR was not used, which caused controversies during the Vietnam match and Thailand match (1st leg).

It would have been a different ball game, should JDT players played the tournaments, especially players like Mathew Davies, Arif Aiman, Safawi Ahmad. Nevertheless, my salute goes to Kim Pang Gon, whom managed to get the backup team, within short span of time and came to this level. It was worrying at the ginning, when Malaysia merely beat Myanmar by 1-0. Nevertheless, they improved their game later during Singapore and Laos match. 

It was great to see players like Rowley, Stuart, Darren, Brendan, Quinten, Lee tuck, Dominic stepping up. I definitely prefer these players, compared to liridon, sumareh and paulo.

Thailand and Vietnam will play each other in 2 leg finals, whom re also group champions. Vietnam, on other hand have yet to to concede any goals. 

While Malaysia have another chance to improve their image during the Asian cup championship this year , whatever it is, National team have to buck up.

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