Just A Few Things: Malaysia Vs. South Korea

Credits: Safawi Rasid's Twitter Account

Nikmatilah The Seoul-Stunners!

Incredible. Astounding. Tremendous. Those are just a few words to describe this victory achieved by our U-23 boys over the Asian Games defending football champion, South Korea. They didn’t yield easily and looked so focus like never before. Everyone played a vital role and in the end, produced a result that they will surely never forget in their lives.

Safawi Rasid is surely in the period of his stellar career and he is only 21 years-old. He was at the right place at the right time when South Korea goalkeeper, Song Bum-Keun dropped an aerial ball colliding with his defender and Safawi did his job to put Malaysia one-up. It got better when Safawi outmuscled Hwang Hyun-Soo and clinically finished his effort to double the lead.

That’s not all. Baddrol Bakthiar is looking more and more assured in his newfound central-midfield role, the defence never looked shaky and there was an air of confidence in the squad that they can do something if they play their cards right, in which they did. If they can do this to South Korea, they may as well go as far as they can. Incredible that it was only four years ago we lost to the same team, but here: The team is looking like they’re fulfilling their growth potential.

Still, we have a long way to go in this tournament. If we want to go far, we have to keep our guard up. For now, let’s just enjoy this moment.

Sit & Run

Given the huge gap in skill level between these two sides, it was obvious how Malaysia is going to approach this. With wing-backs in play, they can easily shift into a 5-3-2, crowding out the centre of the box. South Korea made the mistake of trying to play usually through that central area. Malaysia is content sitting deep and absorb whatever South Korea throws at them.

Once they won the ball back, it was the old counter-attack approach Malaysia use to get a good sniff around South Korea’s box.  That’s how Safawi got his second as he and Akhyar Rashid did their best to get past the defence on the break. Malaysia didn’t get many chances but once they do, they took it so well.

Not Even Son Can Provide The Shine

With Son Heung-Min on the bench against Bahrain only two days ago, many expected the Tottenham Hotspur forward to start and being a menace like how he does in North London. Instead, South Korea once again benched him. To be fair, they did destroy Bahrain 6-0 without him, so the talent they have will surely be enough to trouble Malaysia, right?

Not this time though. South Korea was brutally exposed that they took Malaysia lightly. South Korea looked clueless almost the entire match. Their passes looked wayward and couldn’t direct the tempo. It’s like they weren’t that sync with each other. Their wing-backs also didn’t fare any better as their crosses were easily dealt with.

A well-played lob over the defensive line found Hwang Ui-Jo’s run and the Gamba Osaka striker gave some hope two minutes from time. But that was as good as it got for South Korea. If the team wanted to be exempted from their mandatory military service, they didn’t show it clearly here. Not even Son coming on can brighten up the team. Their manager, Kim Hak-Bum should be culpable for this defeat, because the system he deployed just didn’t go anywhere for them and he didn’t make a tweak which was a terrible mistake.

Haziq Shines

If your team is going to sit back, your keeper also needs to be in top-notch form. But that is how Haziq Nadzli performed to keep Malaysia’s goal safe whenever possible. It’s amazing to think that only about a year ago, he suffered the worst moment in his career in the SEA Games final (Which is a story for another time. The last match saw him looking a little shaky against Kyrgyzstan. But here, he should be commanded for his bravery and solidity.

Haziq never wavered in the face of the South Korean attacks. Getting forward quickly to snuff any attack out and keeping firm hold of the ball. His ball distribution was even great when it was his ball that delivered Malaysia’s first goal. He even denied Hwang Hee-Chan a golden chance to equalize in the first half. A great performance for the keeper.