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 ShamsuddinPoor 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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