Just A Few Things: Malaysia Vs. Bahrain

Credits: Football Association of Malaysia

Back Down To Earth

Now the euphoria is officially gone. Datuk Ong Kim Swee made sweeping changes to the team that beat South Korea having already sealing qualification to the Round of 16. But the back-up charges failed to take their chance badly as they fell to a 3-2 defeat to Bahrain, who deserved the win. If a blip has to happen, at least it happened now. But the performance today has to be much better when the boys are up against Japan. Japan may have sent their U-21 team, but that is not a reason for us to take them lightly.

Sadly for the back-up players, they failed to convince Ong Kim Swee that they deserve to be in the starting eleven and didn’t repay the faith, showing exactly why they are on the bench for the past two games. How exactly they did fare? Let’s take a look.

C+ For Attack

The SAS core (Safawi Rasid, Akhyar Rashid & Syafiq Ahmad) were replaced by Kogileswaran Raj, Hadi Fayyadh & Faisal Abdul Halim. Hadi is the kind of striker that needs service as he can use his physical presence to win the balls. But he was left wanting most of the times and also didn’t help much to hold-up play. The wingers on the other hand should’ve done far better with the ball. Faisal Abdul Halim showed why he is one of Pahang’s interesting prospects with his energy. But a weakness was brutally shown with his decision-making where he kept the ball instead of providing it for a much better positioned teammate and also a lack of awareness whenever a defender comes in. He was forced off for Akhyar Rashid due to a muscle injury.

Kogileswaran Raj also spurned two glorious chances. He was able to keep his calm when he received the ball from Tommy Mawat’s low cross. Able to evade the keeper, but Hassan Al-Karrani slid in and cleared the ball off the line that should’ve been 2-0 to Malaysia. Then, a rare attack in the second half should’ve seen Malaysia equalize but Kogileswaran failed to get a strong foot on Syahmi Safari’s cutback and the ball trickled out of play of the far post.

D for Defense

While the attack at least get some credit for creating some great chances, the defence on the other hand gave every Malaysian a heart attack whenever Bahrain goes forward. They made silly errors that Bahrain should’ve taken advantage of fully. Adib Zainudin was the guilty party when he was dispossessed from behind by Mohamed Marhoon, and he teed up captain Mohamed Hardan for a cool finish.

The defence looked shaky and nervous. They have luck to thank where the score could’ve been much worse. Not even the introduction of Rodney Celvin couldn’t keep the defence together. Adam Nor Azlin was tasked to keep the back tidy and pull everything together, but failed to show that while Syazwan Zaipol didn’t look too assuring as Bahrain kept attacking on his side. Bahrain kept peppering the Malaysia box and the defence barely got away with their carelessness with off-target efforts and the woodwork also coming to their rescue.

B- For Goalkeeping

This would’ve been slightly higher had it not been for one major blemish. But Ifwat Akmal while showed the same bravery as Haziq Nadzli did, he tends to overcommit when he goes off his line. He sometimes find himself in no man’s land and if it weren’t for desperate recovery by his defence, he himself wouldn’t recover in time on a few occasions.

Although he was to blame (Along with Nik Akif Syahiran) when Bahrain scored their second. Hamad Al-Shamsan’s header from a corner looked easy to dealt with, but the communication between Nik Akif, who was by the post and Ifwat were non-existent as the ball squeezed past the Kedah keeper’s hands with Nik Akif ‘s presence accidentally threw his own keeper off. Ifwat though could do nothing about Hardar’s exquisite lob over him that sealed Bahrain’s victory.

A- For Wing-Backs

After this match, there is one thing we can learn: Syahmi Safari needs to be on the wings and nowhere near the midfield. Syahmi was by far the best player in that Malaysia squad and that is possibly due to him being placed in his natural position on the right-wing as the wing-back. He looked so comfortable running down the right side as his wicked half-volley stung the palms of Bahrain keeper Ammar Ahmed to give Malaysia the lead. His runs were immense and made the right decisions.

The same can be said about Tommy Mawat Bada. He bombed down the left flank and his deliveries were top-notch. A shame the attackers couldn’t do anything with it. He has a good left-foot in his arsenal, but perhaps also needed more work in his defending as space on his flank was often taken advantage of where he failed to help out the nervous Syazwan Zaipol. A mixed night for Tommy.