Skip to main content

Harimau Malaya's Performance A Cause For Concern

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 (Bernama) -- The national soccer squad Harimau Malaya's performance in a number of international friendlies ahead of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2012 which kicks off here Sunday has become a cause for concern because they are the defending champions.

The squad under, under the guidance of national chief coach Datuk K.Rajagobal, appears to be still trying to find its rhythm.

Their performance in their four "warm up" international friendlies in preparing for the Suzuki Cup, the most prestigious soccer tournament in the Asean region, is nothing to shout about.

They started off on a bad note losing 0-1 to Vietnam and 0-2 to Thailand and were held to 1-1 draws by Asian minnows Hong Kong and Bangladesh.

Malaysia are ranked 163rd in the world, Vietnam (138), Thailand (152), Bangladesh (171) and Hong Kong (172).

This has got supporters questioning if the national squad can repeat the feat they achieved in Jakarta two years ago.

Malaysia are drawn in Group B in the Suzuki Cup which will be played at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil here, together with Indonesia, Singapore and Laos.

They take on Singapore on Sunday, Laos (Nov 28) and Indonesia, the last edition's runners-up on Dec 1.

Group A is made up of Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines.

Singapore who share the same ranking with Malaysia whipped Pakistan 4-0 recently while Indonesia and Cameroon's Under-23 squad played to a 0-0 draw.

The two teams pose a serious threat to Malaysia.

Prior to this, Rajagobal, 56, had reassured fans not to be too concerned about rankings but the way the Harimau Muda are playing lately hardly inspires confidence.

All said, Harimau Malaya's moment of reckoning is nigh.

-- BERNAMA

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

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
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