Just A Few Things (Malaysia U22 Vs. Australia U22)

Credit: FAM.

Credible Fight

While Australia were in control for large parts of the match, they will feel extremely annoyed with themselves that they didn’t get the win they felt they deserve, especially with the manner of how they threw it away. Nevertheless, the draw showed the kind of character every Malaysian fan wants from their team as the Malaysia U-22s salvage an unlikely 1-1 draw over their counterparts from Down Under.

Australia dominated the first half as everybody expected, but a combination of decent saves, desperate defending and failing to convert somehow kept the score goalless once the referee signaled half-time and Malaysia can count themselves lucky they didn’t concede, especially among a few mistakes they could’ve been punished for. But Malaysia saw their work come undone when a corner somehow found Brandon Wilson’s head among a group of Malaysia players to give Australia the lead.

Despite the setback, Malaysia showed character to try and fight back. Some of the players even tried to go toe-to-toe with the Aussie players physically despite the disadvantage. But Australia held their own and initially thought they did enough to grind out a victory. That is until deep into injury time, substitute Nik Azli Nik Alias took advantage of the Olyroo’s backline confusion and was able to score with a snapshot that substitute keeper, Daniel Margush saw too late.

Cue bedlam among the 6636 fans. The fact that Malaysia did their best to hold their own and earned a draw is a positive sign of things yet to come.

Tales Of Two Wingers

Kim Swee, making use of the unlimited substitutions he can make, made four half-time changes and one of them had the desired effect. Pahang’s Faisal Abdul Halim (AKA Mickey) helped change the complexion of Malaysia’s approach in the match. His introduction nearly caused an instant impact. When he dribbled past a few defenders down by the half-space on the right and saw his effort saved by Olyroos keeper, Jordan Holmes by the new post immediately after the restart (And he was denied the second in another similar situation later)

Mickey has not only caused problems for the Australians, but also exposing the space they left behind down on his side to run at. The Aussie backline couldn’t contain the Pahang winger and they were not doing themselves any favor for furthering opening the space Mickey could utilize.

Before that inspired sub however, the man Mickey replaced did not have the best of games. Akhyar Rashid has been inconspicuous as of late and his performance against Australia personifies how has he been doing so far this year. He could not for the life of him get the better of the much bigger Australians. But he did have his moments. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep his shot down from a tight angle after Holmes spilled Syahmi’s low cross to the winger’s path. It could be just one of those days for Akhyar having to fail to influence the attack, but hopefully he can bounce back in style for the qualifiers.

Syamer’s New Role

No longer having the luxury of having two out of his three main central defenders, Kim Swee made a huge decision. He had Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) midfielder Syamer Kutty Abba playing as a makeshift centre-back in a move he had done for KL’s Irfan Zakaria. And to give credit to the centre-midfielder, he put out a decent performance.

With Malaysia playing their usual 3-4-3 formation, Syamer is tasked to be the ball-playing defender with Malaysia’s attempt from building out from the back. He did the minimum he was required to do as he successfully got the ball forward often and looked disciplined at the back.

Press The Keeper

It was probably expected, but Australia made great use of their key strength over our boys. Every time they went at them when they have possession , a few of the Olyroos would give pressure and as a result, made Malaysia lose their composure and eventually lose possession when they were looking to attack. Their midfield did very well to stop anything that is going well for us. Heck, not even Haziq Nadzli was spared by the roaming Australians.

Australia played a high press from the front in order to force the Malaysia backline to make a mistake and stop them from patiently building from the back. They nearly benefitted from the press a number of times. But fate was kind to Haziq as his blushes were spared the few times Australia could’ve taken advantage of his errors thanks to the high press. It was only until half-time that Malaysia would stop passing back the keeper when Kelantan’s Damien Lim came on for Haziq.

Plan Hidden In Plain Sight?

Despite the sweeping changes he made throughout the second-half, Kim Swee did not put on notable mainstays of the U-23 team, Dominic Tan & Safawi Rasid. While Dominic missed out according to Fox Sports Asia (though he was named on the bench), Safawi was not used at all in the whole 90 minutes. And there could be a reason why.

China’s U-22 head coach, the legendary Guus Hiddink was in attendance to scout his team’s last day opponents for the AFC U-23 Cup qualifiers. The tenacity of the Malaysian squad will surely give him something to think about, but without having seen Safawi in action, Hiddink wouldn’t truly know what Malaysia is capable of.

Other Things To Note

Danial Amier Norhisham had just returned from an injury and was given an important task by being the captain for this match following Dominic’s absence. He did a decent job being the midfield general as his touches were excellent in keeping possession. Hadi Fayyadh was tasked to be the target man support (Similar to how Rufino Segovia is used for Selangor), but haven’t done enough to cause trouble (Thanks to Brandon Wilson doing his job).

Jafri Firdaus Chew’s presence has drawn ire from the fans online and well, he sadly did nothing to silence the critics as he has been ineffective in the match. R. Dinesh needs to be more alert to cover his flank because Australia’s right-wing player often has space to run, though Dinesh’s recovery was not too bad and eventually grew into the game. Also, it appears Shahrul Nizam Ros Hasni may be the tackler of the defensive trio to replace Adam Nor Azlin.

Damien Lim was bought on for the second half and looked far more composed than Haziq, although he wasn’t put in the same situation as the JDT keeper having to collect backpasses. Other than scooping the ball out of his net after Australia’s opener, he was only called to action once to superbly save Abraham Majok’s rocket that was going into his near post on 79 minutes.