Just A Few Things: Malaysia Vs. Laos
Credit- Football Association of Malaysia (FAM)
Finally Broke Through
Laos proved to be an extremely tough nut to crack, considering the way they set up (Which we will go into a little later). Scoring against the run of play after seven minutes, Malaysia ramp up their attacks. It didn’t take long to equalize when Zaquan Adha diverted Syahmi Safari’s low cross six minutes later. From there, that’s where it got really intense and frustrating.
Malaysia obviously had most of the possession and chances, but the ball wouldn’t go in. It was either luck, the woodwork or the keeper that wouldn’t allow the ball to just go into the net. To give an indication on how much Malaysia dominated, they had over 30+ attempts at goal and 633 passes to Laos 77. Hazwan Bakri, Shahrel Fikri, Safawi Rasid and others had chances but couldn’t agonizingly convert. As time went on, the fans were getting more anxious.
Then, five minutes before the end, a corner lead to a mini-scramble but Akram Mahinan did enough to win the ball that fell to Norshahrul Idlan Talaha, AKA Mat Yo, to bundle the ball in much to the jubilation of the fans. It got even better two minutes into stoppage time when Mat Yo drifted to the path of Akhyar Rashid’s cross to head the ball in to cap off a satisfying night.
Get The Fire Hoses!
To borrow the tune of the song ‘Will Grigg’s On Fire’ (Sorry, Wigan fans. Just want to borrow for a bit), but Mat Yo is on fire. The last few international matches saw the Pahang winger being in the best run of form in his career. Something we haven’t seen since perhaps the 2010 Suzuki Cup and we all know what happened eventually.
It’s as if his career growth is similar to Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The older he gets, the better he is, just like one of those luxury aged cheeses. His goal poaching instincts looks to be in shape as he will surely want more where that came from.
Battle Of Wits
Malaysia though started with an unusual approach. Head coach Tan Cheng Hoe fielded Akram Mahinan as the sole recognized midfielder with Syafiq Ahmad drifting in to help out alongside him (More on that later). It was unclear how the attackers were set up. It could’ve been 4-1-4-1, 4-1-2-3 or a 4-1-3-2 system looking at who started. But at least everyone agreed Akram is going to do all the ‘destroying’ work to win the ball back.
Laos though were a lot more straightforward with their formation. They played in a 5-4-1 formation. They were content with sitting back and soak pressure. They have the players to launch the counter-attack. One of them lead to Laos winning the free-kick where their goal came from. For 86 minutes, Laos head coach V. Sundramoorthy seemingly won the tactics battle. Tan Cheng Hoe threw on fresh attackers to ramp up the pressure on Laos and ultimately snatched victory in the end.
Get Your Position Right, Apek
None of this anxiety wouldn’t have happened if Khairul Fahmi had not made a mess of that free-kick. It was obvious Phithack Kongmathilath was going for it with his left-foot given the free-kick was on the right. Phithack went for it and Apek was somehow beaten. It didn’t help that it looked like the glimpses of touches that he had on the ball actually guided the it in. Apek, as he is fondly known, didn’t move his feet quick enough to get across to save the ball. Thankfully, his mistake didn’t matter in the end.
Penetration Over Passing
Syafiq Ahmad was strangely deployed as one of the midfielders. It looks like he was tasked with ball distribution and keep the ball going forward. In theory, it might work considering his short passes are not too bad. Problem was he took one touch too many before he makes a pass As a result, that would often allow Laos to recover and retake their positions defending Malaysia’s attacks.
Tied at 1-1 on half-time, Cheng Hoe brought on Akhyar Rashid for Syazwan Zainon to give that much needed penetration and the change had the desired effect. With more focus attacking on Akhyar’s left flank, the Kedah winger gave the Laos defence a nervous time turning them inside out. Syafiq eventually was subbed off for Shahrel Fikri who offered much more penetration. If Tan Cheng Hoe wants Syafiq to be in charge of passing, it would best to consider him in the ‘Second Striker’ role.
The Ballad Of Outthilath
The funny thing was that the Laos goalkeeper that started, Outthilath Nammakhoth, wasn’t even supposed to start the match. According to Dunia Sukan Online on Twitter, Laos’ main keeper, Saymanolith Praseuth, got injured during the warm-up and Outthilath replaced him. After the match, he would probably be remembered as the time-wasting goalkeeper by Malaysia fans. He kept dilly-dallying when a goal kick is given for him and would often lie down injured with the score still level (Although let’s face it, we’ve seen this before in our leagues whenever a result goes someone’s way).
You can imagine the cheers from the crowd when the referee had enough of Outthilath’s antics and booked him for time-wasting. He may no longer wasted time with his goal-kicks but he still would lie prone in pain whenever he gets the chance. Strangely, the time-wasting stopped after Mat Yo scored Malaysia’s second.
Not only that, in almost all the set-pieces, he would always punch the ball away from danger and not risking catching it in danger of being outmatched physically. Malaysia should’ve picked this up, but he got away with it everytime. Although he did pull off a great one-handed save to tip over Akhyar’s stinging strike over. In the end, he got outsmarted by Mat Yo.
Slow & Steady Won’t Win The Race
Through out the entire first half, Malaysia had the possession, but they were too slow to do anything when they were on the attack. Akram did his best with whatever creativity he had. But the speed of their attacks were way too slow for anyone’s liking. The fans made their feelings known by jeering whenever Malaysia were hesitant delivering the ball forward. Then again, with the way Laos set-up, you can’t blame our players.
That’s why when Akhyar came on, he was greeted with cheers and the team was rejuvenated. They were playing at a much higher tempo and the Laos defence had to get their feet right to stay firm. Given who we’re up against next, we can’t afford to be slow on the attack as Vietnam has the players to exert pressure to our players.