Good Bye Suzuki Cup

It is the end of the road for the Malayan Tigers tonight in Bangkok after their 2-0 defeat against the Thais saw them lost the tie 3-1 on aggregate.

Fingers will be pointing at the Korean referee, Lee Min Hu's poor performance as the reason why the Malaysians lost their regional title. However, I would like to differ from the majority and blame it on the Malaysian Head Coach, Rajagopal.

With just a few weeks going into the competition he was still experimenting with his line-ups. The results of the friendlies that his team played during that period were far from encouraging. Defeats in Vietnam and Thailand were tolerable but being held by the Bangladeshis certainly pushing the fans patience to the brink.

Then came the 3-0 demolition by southern rivals Singapore in the first match.

The Malaysian line-up for the match was the one expected to be littered with players known to Rajagobal. The feeling was it is a catastrophe waiting to happen. By the end of the ninety minutes every Malaysian knew it was one.

Rajagobal knew he had to change for the next two matches to ensure qualification from the group. He did change, with four players making their first start for the tournament. It brought the required result, a 4-1 win over Laos even though the result looked beyond their reach with 23 minutes remaining.

Then came the crunch match against Indonesia and Malaysia performed almost flawlessly to win 2-0 and booked their place in the last four. Suddenly we were playing like champions and looked good to defend the cup.

Rajagobal then sprung a surprise to the nation with a 4-5-1 formation at home against Thailand for the first leg. Back to the fold was his prized player, Amar Rohidan. In the end it was a 1-1 stalemate and an away goal conceded though nobody in their right mind would blame Farizal Marlias for the Thais' equalizer.

A more positive and bold approach to the match could have brought a healthy lead for the second leg in Bangkok. Unfortunately, Rajagobal looked timid in his approach and with the Thais only needing a goalless draw to qualify, it was a mountain to climb for the holders.

Somehow, it was kind of expected that Amar Rohidan would be in the line-up thus giving me the feeling that it is "good-bye" Suzuki Cup.

In reality, the host did not have to do a lot as Malaysia did not offer much in attack. The poor decision by the referee in flashing the second yellow card to Fadli Shas certainly made the Malaysians' job even harder.

Thailand made sure that The Tigers went home with their tails between their legs when Teerasil Dangda capitalised on the mistake by Amar (ironic) to race through on goal before calmly slotting the ball past Farizal on the hour mark.

Five minutes later, it was all over for The Tigers when Farizal could not hold on to the stinging free-kick by Jakkapan Pornsai and Theerathon Bunmathan was the first to arrive to the ball to tuck it in into the goal.

Rajagopal blamed the exit on the dismissal of Fadli Shas by the referee but in reality he should be blaming himself for not being brave enough to take the fight to the Thais in the first place.


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Harsh...

...Truth!

It is the end of the road for Malaysia in their journey to the 2014 World Cup Finals in Brazil. The 1-1 scoreline at the end of the second round, second leg match at Bukit Jalil meant we were eliminated by Singapore on a 6-4 aggregate score after losing the first match 5-3 at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

In a way, I would say the elimination is a blessing in disguise for Malaysian football as it will force those who are responsible to take stock of the qualifying campaign and iron out the deficiencies in the Malayan Tigers in order to maintain the recent standard that Malaysian football fans have been accustomed to.

The team did not reach the level they were at during the successful 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup campaign.

Photo by: Shazli Shamsuddin

Poor defending have been the bane of the campaign, as seen from the first round matches against Chinese Taipei. It continued in the first leg match against Singapore though the fighting spirit to reduce the score to 4-3 after trailing 4-1 at the interval gave Malaysians hope they could finish the job in Bukit Jalil despite conceding a late goal as they lost 5-3.

From mad redo1's perspective, Rajagobal's men do not know how to defend as a team and prone to lose concentration too many times during a match. Almost all goals conceded were results from this weakness.

Our midfielders do not track opposing players properly which meant a simple one-two could easily open up our defence. All these were evident during the match against The Lions, who despite many of their players could qualify for the next Academy Awards, were much better tactically and technically than The Tigers.

Of course, there is no point talking about their naturalised players as we must realise, in order to become a footballing power, we must be able to match any kind of players our opponents field against us.

For now, we simply are not ready for that. Rather than seeing the team becoming a punchbag for the football powerhouses in Asia, I would rather see we prepare ourselves for the next assignment, which is the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup, where we are the defending champions and co-host with Thailand.

As for the Lions, they could surprise a few people with the presence of their naturalised players but to see them in action in Brazil in 2014 would be asking too much of them. They have better chance of grabbing an Oscar at the Academy Awards!


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Goals Galore...

...at the Tiny Stadium.

mad redo1 was no where in front of the TV to catch the first leg of the second round match between Singapore and Malaysia at the tiny Jalan Besar Stadium for a berth in the third round of the Asian section of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

The reason being he was away at a wedding reception, celebrating the marriage of his niece, Maizura 'Juya' Ismail to a Dane, Matthias Varming at the Felda Villa Restaurant. But the news that came through was shocking to say the least as the home side ran riot and went down the tunnel at the interval leading the beleaguered Malaysians by 4-1.

Wearing the Malaysia yellow jersey under his green casual shirt specially bought for the occassion, mad redo1 joked with other guests about the score would be 4-3 when the referee blew his final whistle.

He was amazed when the news came and the score did become 4-3. Unfortunately it was not the final one as the home side managed to add another ten minutes before time to bring a two goal advantage when the two sides meet again for the second leg at Bukit Jalil.

Would the Malayan Tigers be able to find the two goals needed to ensure a passage to the third round, the answer would be on Thursday.

Come on Tigers!


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