Just A Few Things: Malaysia U-23 Vs. China U-23

Credit: Ikhwan Khairuddin

So Brutally Close…

Despite everything, despite all our boys’ hard work, despite the results, despite the impressive match against China, they were still eliminated so cruelly after failing to get a grip on one of the best 2nd-placed teams and thus, our Olympic dream has prematurely ended after results elsewhere went against us.

It is very hard to imagine what they are feeling right now. They played excellent football that has excited us fans (Except against Laos, sadly) and have nothing to show for in the end. There was also the fact that the West Asia zone teams played later made them realized that a draw is sufficient enough for their hopes while denting ours.

You can pinpoint the Laos match as one of the reasons why we didn’t qualify, only scoring one goal in the process against them. But you can’t help but think we should be among the 16 teams going to Thailand next year. Still, the foundations head coach Ong Kim Swee (OKS) has laid is still alive and well as they turn to the SEA Games, the next big tournament, later this year.

Squaring Up

It’s even more heartbreaking when you consider how incredible the effort our boys put out to take it to China. Even though the China players were much stronger and bigger, our boys didn’t yield. They went body-to-body in order to shake their Chinese counterparts off and amazingly, they won their fair share of the physical battles despite the mismatch.

Our boys were able to get out of tight situations by playing intricate short passes that let them set off on their way forward as they held off China’s attempts to outmuscle them off the ball and disrupt the play. Hadi Fayyadh also did a good job to hold up play and trying to get his teammates to join in on the attack.

Sadly, one of the times China did win the physical battle was the one that wind up damaging our hopes to qualify. Jiang Shenlong outjumped everyone to head in the second equalizer with only seven minutes remaining. But you have to applaud the brave display by our boys facing big adversity.

Chan-ce From The Keeper

Questions have to be asked about China’s goalkeeper of the night, Chan Wei. The keeper was a huge contrast to our own keeper, Haziq Nadzli. While Haziq was brave in outjumping the much taller Chinese players to win the aerial battles, Chan Wei looked shaky. There were a couple of times he didn’t look particularly convincing and looked like he was lacking in confidence.

It showed when on 55 minutes, he went out of his goal to catch a seemingly harmless corner kick. Only for him to flap at the ball and it neatly fell to Danial Haqim for an easy tap in for Malaysia’s second of the night. Chan Wei almost gifted a third goal late on, but he can thank his lucky stars that his mistake of letting Safawi Rasid’s free-kick slip out of his hands only bounced out for a corner.

Chan Wai was perhaps the weak link of the China team in that match, but Malaysia failed to take that advantage most of the times since their attempts to shoot outside the box was sadly weak.

Steady Mat Yat

It was before the season started a certain hot prospect stirred controversy surrounding his move to the southern state and it resulted in ire from some corners of local football. But this qualifying campaign, in this game particularly, Akhyar Rashid (AKA Mat Yat) reminded everyone why most fans wholeheartedly love him in the first place.

Due to the strong depth at Johor Darul Takzim (JDT), Akhyar is fighting for his place. Here, he makes a strong case why he should be picked once in a while. His trickery mesmerized the crowd and got the China defence reeling on how to subdue him completely. They couldn’t as Mat Yat caused so much trouble down on the wings.

It really makes you wonder if you want to face either Akhyar or Gonzalo Cabrera deployed on the right-wing whenever you’re facing JDT. Because either way, there is a huge chance you will be figuratively flayed alive.

Make Some Noise

This match also serves us a reminder why fans are so important to football. They, especially the Ultras Malaya, rallied the team tremendously and the effects give the team some boost to their mentality as they tried to outdo China. The Ultras came down to Shah Alam Stadium to full force.

China themselves have a small section of fans to cheer them on, but whenever they tried to make noise, the Ultras, joined by other sections of the fans occasionally, would always one-up them and immediately the China fans kept quiet for a few minutes whenever that happens. They kept on singing messages to the team to keep them focused in the match. OKS tweeted before the match that the fans have to be louder than the China fans. They did, and they did it so well.

To the fans: Thank you for being there for the team when they need it the most.