"Ini kalilah!" - Malaysians
World Cup, as predicted, is being stripped from Qatar. It's moving to Australia, so close to home. I really hope I can shape this team up in time for World Cup 2022.
Notables news in the past 2 months included being offered jobs at the club level by Melaka and Selangor. I decided against it as I would like to concentrate on managing the Harimau Malaya. A day to day job just requires too much commitment for now. We also rose up the rankings slightly, up to 106th. Pretty confident we can break top 100 soon! Then there were a string of U23s matches (against Brunei U23s, Vietnam U23s, and Macau (Chinese PR) U23s) that ended 2-0 in all 3 matches. Last but not least, the newgens kicked in! I've not managed to scout through every player available to me, but just from what I've gathered in the short 2-3 weeks has been amazing. Have a look yourself.
These are all eligible for U19s. I wouldn't say it's the most balanced pool of players that I have, with an overflowing abundance of strikers, but who am I to complain. I can't wait to face Singapore so I can bring some of these players on board!
I dropped quite a few regulars (Abdul Azih, Bakri and Safari) in favor of some new talents. Apparently, none of the dropped players came and complaint. Glad that everyone's having the 'team before me' mentality. 11 potential debutants! I think I'll even start as many debutants as I can. It's Johor DT that's having the most players (6 players) representing, but this time around, there are players from as many as 11 different clubs.
Here's my starting 11 - with 8 debutants and 3 more sitting on the bench. Changed my tactics to accommodate the players that I've called up this time. CB pairing is new, as well as anyone beyond my DMC - Abdul Razak (now this name sounds pretty familiar). I actually gave this guy his debut against East Timor and he has featured on my team ever since.
"Muhaimin Jamaludin! Muhaimin Jamaludin!" The fans were chanting a new name by halftime. This 16-year-old scored 2 amazing headers from Salleh's pinpoint right crosses. He's one to remember but I had to sub him out to keep him fresh Roslan conceded a penalty in injury time and Webb stepped up and scored. Swapped in the remaining 3 debutants and pushed Sulaiman up to his natural position on the left - AML. I'm actually playing a 4-1-2-3 DM Asymmetric AM (L) formation.
The match ended 4-2 as it was a very open game. The goal of the game for me is a beautiful pass from Mohd Hanafi Sulaiman that picked out Ibrahim Salleh. Overall, I'm pleased but Matthew Davies has to buck up. Till next time, Singapore. There has always been, and always will, an ongoing "who's got the better food (nasi lemak burger/bak kut teh) argument"; but at least in football, we showed them who's the big brother. ;)
Next up - Afghanistan!
I decided to call Brendan Gan back into the fold, playing at the top of the wide diamond, while Abdul Razak marshalls at the base. We started off brightly with a goal from Sukri Salleh. Shahri had a spill but thank God no Afghanistan players were near enough to pounce. Salleh scored again towards the end of the half. I'm actually pretty glad to see that Matthew Davies' performance has improved.
I made no changes during halftime but put on 3 players around the 60th-minute mark instead. Salleh missed a golden opportunity to scored his first hattrick. All in all, I'm a very happy man as Jordan was held to a draw by Tajikistan at home, what more a 95th-minute equalizer by Jalilov means 2 points dropped by the favorites in this group.
Here's the current standings for Asian Nations Cup Qualifying Group F. We're currently sitting atop!
If you enjoyed this entry, do check out my previous posts
from where it all started, right up to now.
The Malaysia Experiment - The Setup
The Malaysia Experiment - Welcome to Malaysia!
The Malaysia Experiment - Getting to Know the Players
The Malaysia Experiment - Why Wan?
The Malaysia Experiment - My Managerial Debut
The Malaysia Experiment - The First Step
The Malaysia Experiment - First Cut Is The Deepest
The Malaysia Experiment - David vs Goliath