"Anything worth acheiving
is worth overacheiving." - Lois McMaster Bujold
Remember the days when you're halfway through your assignment, you've been too engrossed that you forgot to save/back up, and suddenly there's a power cut? My case wasn't that bad, I just couldn't seem to find my save and no matter how many times I replay that game, I don't think I can replicate the result of the last match against Tajikistan. The best I could do was a 1-2 lost, similar in terms of goal difference.
Well, I'm still taking that 4 months break. I have not forgotten how disappointed I was with the boys. :/
I get occasional updates every now and then. Abhishek Pannirselvam winning Asian Young Footballer of the Year award is worth celebrating. Surprisingly, it's older than Golden Boy (1995 compared to 2003), which awards players that play in a European nation's top tier.
Our U23s also exceeded expectations in the U23 Asian Cup by advancing beyond the group stages unbeaten (2-0 vs Iran U23s, 1-1 vs South Korea U23s, and 2-1 vs Kuwait U23s). We then beat Uzbekistan U23s in the quarterfinals but fell to eventual winners, China U23s, 0-3 in the semifinals. We lost to Indonesia U23 by a single goal in the 3rd place playoff as well, so our U23s left China without a medal.
I came back to work mid-March for the last match of the campaign, against Afghanistan (170th). They're rock bottom in Group F with no points and a goal difference of -8.
I've included 7 new players with Armuhum Gurusamy Govandar being highly recommended by my assistant, Tan Cheng Hoe, as he has been in good form for his club, as well as participating in the recent U23 Asian Cup.
Our game ended a dour 1-0. Debutant Gurusamy Govandar was the man of the match (7.4) as he scored the only goal of the game. We ended the game with 9 men left on the field as Azman (84th minute) and Hussain (92nd minute) were forced off due to injuries.
Meanwhile, it was really exciting in the other match of Group F, where Tajikistan and Jordan were fighting for qualification. They changed lead 3 times! I could barely keep my eyes on my own match as I kept getting updates in the last 10 minutes! Joraev proved to be the hero for Tajikistan as he scored a hattrick in the 3-3 draw, which was sufficient for them to secure second place.
Asian Nations Cup Qualifying Campaign Review
If you told me at the start of the campaign that I would top the group, I'd say you were pulling my leg. We had our ups and downs, but definitely more ups. The most memorable was the 3-0 dismantling of Jordan. Shukri Salleh (16 years old) is our top scorer with 3 goals. Saddam El-Hafedz Shahri also managed to keep 3 clean sheets.
To be honest, I don't know my strongest 11 as we're still discovering new talents, especially in the striking department. Haji Mohd Yusop has been pretty disappointing, but there's a lot of young strikers in the likes of Muhaimin Jamaludin and Mohd Fadzil Amit waiting in the ranks. I've got 2 really good young wingers, Lee Jinxiang on the right and Luqman Hussain on the left. Hopefully, they can fulfil their potential.
In midfield, I've got my ever-present Mohd Fauzi Abdul Razak (DM). He's like a rock, sitting right in front of our defence. There's also Hafiz Aman (AMC), Ibrahim Ismail (MC) and Gonzalo Gnanalingam (DM) to choose from. I've not forgotten our old guard in the likes of Brendan Gan(29 years old) and Junior Eldstål (26 years old).
Abhishek Pannirselvam (DC), the winner of the recent Asian Young Footballer award, is one of the first names on my starting lineup. There's also Nor Azli Abdul Ghani (DL) who recently joined the fold. With not much new talented defenders, I'm still pretty much relying on Mohd Fadhli Mohd Shas (27 years old), Matthew Davies (23 years old) and Kiko Insa (30 years old) to get the job done for me.
In the goalkeeping category, Saddem El-Hafedz was initially primed to become my star player but with the influx of many new talents, he's now only 3 stars. Still he's better than the likes of Mohd Farizal Harun (32 years old) and Khairul Fahmie Che Mat (29 years old).
We're really heavy on the attacking division. I do hope the new intakes this year (2018) will produce a lot more defenders and goalkeepers. In the meantime, I'll just have to be creative and make do with what we have now.
Since I took the helm, we've played 11 games (7W 2D and 2L). Aside from the 3-0 demolition of Jordan, the 4-2 win against Singapore gave me the most satisfaction. To get one over your bitter rivals give the fans bragging rights. Losses are always painful, but I can never forget the first loss against Hong Kong (China PR). It totally ruined my mood and I stayed in the hotel for the rest of the trip rather than go shopping.
Now I'm off to schedule some friendlies against New Zealand and Australia. By that time, we'll have the next set of newgens. Praying for some future world beaters!
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
The Malaysia Experiment - A New Malaysia?
The Malaysia Experiment - Here Comes The Doubters
The Malaysia Experiment - Qualification Wrapped Up?