The Malaysia Experiment - The First Step

Here we are. Our first competitive match. Let's pray that it ends with us grabbing 3 points to a good start of the campaign.

I couldn't believe my eyes when Isabelle Dahalan reported that we are 'sure-fire favourites'. That definitely boosts confidence, but also raises expectations. She also mentioned that 'key players' such as Haji Mohd Yusop has to be firing on all cylinders. I guess the press really takes on my opinions eventhough he has only featured 45 minutes of international football.

I'm actually pretty nervous while I'm picking my first 11. Pretty much sticking to the lineup against East Timor that got us the 3-0 victory with minor changes. Dropping Abdul Razak back as DM, his natural position, to protect the back four. I've also swapped out veteran Che Hashim for Mazlan.

The 3 players on Harimau Malaya, with faces, are considered computer generated. Everyone else that's blank is because the game, Football Manager 2018, hasn't bought the copyright for the images. My scouting team has no information on Tajikistan so I'm going into this blind except for the fact they'll be playing the classic 4-4-2.

So the first half went by, and I was beginning to become worried as there weren't many highlights. It was until the last minute when Mohd Yusop and Kunanlan played a one-two and Kunanlan whipped in an accurate cross. Mohd Yusop couldn't miss and broke his international duck!

We started the second half with a penalty and Tajikistan's goalkeeper guessed wrong as Brendan Gan fires it straight in the middle. Subbed him out not long after as his match fitness was really bad. Mohd Shas had a knock as well, so in came Amiruddin. Tajikistan pulled one back through Davronov and it got us a bit worried. I called on Raaj Baarathy to keep their defence occupied and not long after that, the final whistle blew.

Glad to send the players back to their respective clubs in a buoyant mood. 2 victories signalled a good start to our journey to qualify for Asian Nations Cup. To be honest I'm not putting on too much hope as Jordan is odds-on favourites to qualify out of this group. Achieving a respectable second place would be quite a feat. Now I'm off for another 3 months break before our toughest game of this campaign - an away match at Amman International Stadium.