Skip to main content

Malaysia take on Lebanon

An AFC official shows up the names Malaysia and Lebanon after the draw of the second round of the Asian 2012 London Olympic qualifier at the AFC headquarters yesterday. — Picture by Osman Adnan
An AFC official shows up the names Malaysia and Lebanon after the draw of the second round of the Asian 2012 London Olympic qualifier at the AFC headquarters yesterday. — Picture by Osman Adnan
RELIEF at avoiding the big guns soon gave way to the realisation that little is known of the Lebanese Olympic team after the draw for the second round of the Asian 2012 London Olympic qualifiers yesterday. While the match-up against Lebanon presents Malaysia with the best chance of advancing to the group stage, national Under-23 coach Ong Kim Swee preached caution ahead of the home and away ties on June 19 and 23.

With Malaysia travelling to Beirut for the first leg, Kim Swee was pleased to have the second leg at home but said much work remains to be done.

"Have we ever played Lebanon before?" asked Kim Swee, to which the answer is no.
"We know little about them although I seem to recall Selangor did play against a Lebanese club in the AFC Cup a few years ago.

"What we have to do now is come up with a programme to prepare against our opponents. We need to do our homework and get some information on Lebanon," said Kim Swee after the draw at AFC House in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

Malaysia last qualified for the Olympics in 1980, but never got to play due to a boycott of the Moscow event and have never come close to qualifying since.

Kim Swee was right about Selangor -- Al-Nejmeh were the opposition in the 2006 AFC Cup quarter-finals won by the Lebanese club 1-0 on aggregate in the only meeting between teams from the two countries at senior, Olympic or club level.

There were a few anxious faces among the Malaysian officials when Malaysia were the last team left in the unseeded pot with the choice of playing China or Lebanon left.

That expression gave way to relief when China were drawn against Oman, leaving Malaysia and Lebanon as the last remaining pairing.



Malaysia reached the second round with a 2-0 aggregate win over Pakistan while Lebanon had a bye.

At senior level, Malaysia are ranked 23rd in Asia to Lebanon's 32nd according to Fifa's world rankings with the Lebanese not having played an international since March 2010.

Meanwhile, Malaysia were drawn with defending champions North Korea in both the AFC Under-19 and Under-16 qualifying competitions.

Ismail Ibrahim's Under-19 team also have Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos for company in Group F while the Under-16 side were pitched against China, Timor Leste, Singapore and Macau in Group E.



Read more: NST

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’

Saya setuju. We are working on more coaches! “ @ManOlimpik : Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’ http://t.co/7D7wmHWaNy ” — Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) June 10, 2014 The benchmark. Can our junior athletes train as hard as Malaysia's world No.1 badminton player, Lee Chong Wei? “IT IS okay lah. The training is not too bad lah. I will try lah … Wah, so hard lah today.” These are some of the common statements I hear from our juniors nowadays. It is not only in badminton. It is the easy-going, laid-back attitude and lack of competitiveness at grassroots level that we have problems producing quality players. I have travelled quite a bit. After ending my decade-long career with the national team, I went to play in the league in Europe. It’s different there. The European athletes know what they want. And they do it with real focus. Even the young ones possess admirable self-control and show a high level of commitment. During my time in the ...
12 comments
Read more

Organising Major Sports Events Can Inspire Sports Culture Among The People - Khairy

PUTRAJAYA, June 5 (Bernama) -- Organising major sports events can help inspire sports culture among the people and ensure a healthy lifestyle said Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. Khairy said the Tour of Malaysia cycling race organised since 1963, for example, can encourage more people to take the sport in a more competitive way or just for recreation purposes. "A study carried out by a world renown medical journal, The Lancet, revealed that 61 percent of adults in Malaysia do not engage themselves in active sports. "A study by the Health Ministry revealed that only 25 percent of Malaysians exercise," he said in his speech when launching the 2013 Tour of Malaysia (Jelajah Malaysia) at the Youth and Sports Ministry, here, Wednesday. "Cycling, though not as popular here as in countries like Denmark, the activity is becoming popular among the people as can be seen through an increase in sale of bicycles for recreation," he sa...
Post a Comment
Read more

KBS realistik

TERUJA...Shabery (dua dari kanan) melancarkan Logo Tahun Industri Sukan 2011-2012 di Casa 1, MSN, semalam.    KETIKA beberapa sukan utama diletakkan sasaran meraih pingat khususnya emas di Sukan Olimpik 2012 London, penyertaan bola sepak dan hoki sebagai keluarga baru program Road To London pula dilihat sekadar membantu mereka melepasi kelayakan. Mungkin bersikap lebih realistik dengan keupayaan kedua-dua sukan itu di pentas lebih tinggi, Menteri Belia dan Sukan, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek mahu segala bantuan diberikan kepada sejumlah 50 pemain bola sepak dan hoki kebangsaan bagi membolehkan mereka tersenarai sebagai kontinjen ke London. “Bagi acara hoki dan bola sepak, kita tidak boleh melihat bantuan perlu diberi selepas mereka layak tetapi kita akan cuba bantu mereka supaya mereka layak. “Tiada kompromi terhadap misi mendapatkan emas pertama tetapi sasaran kita tahun ini ialah mendapatkan seberapa ramai atlet ke Sukan Olimpik,” katanya selepas mempen...
Post a Comment
Read more