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

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Govt Always Gives Emphasis To Sporting Culture, Says PM

KUALA TERENGGANU, May 29 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badaw i said the government always gives emphasis on cultivating a strong sporting culture in achieving excellence at the international level. As such, the Prime Minister said, it was important to scout for young talents in sports. "I observe that the Malaysia Games (Sukma) has become one of the important platforms to do so. "In this arena, the potentials and skills of the youngsters can be identified for development so that they can achieve greater success in sports," he said in his message in the souvenir book of the 12th Sukma from May 31 until June 9. Abdullah said he was aware that competition in sports was very keen and challenging but this did not mean that Malaysian athletes were incapable of competing at the international level. "The fact is that we have all the characteristics required to be excellent. We must inculcate a strong fighting spirit so that we don't easily surrender,...
1 comment
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more