Just A Few Things: Malaysia Vs. Timor Leste - WCQ Qualifier

A Job Well Done

This is what everyone was expecting from this team. Malaysia walloped a young Timor Leste side 12-2 on aggregate following a 5-1 win on the night, handing them a harsh lesson to advance to the next round of the World Cup/Asia Cup qualifying. Given the nature of their opponents, the Harimau Malaya did exactly what they’re supposed to do to an opponent like Timor Leste.

The team has shown a great amount of improvement compared to the last time they faced Timor Leste in the last qualifying campaign where everything wasn’t going right. Now the real test begins in the second round. All eyes are on the second round draw on the 17th July to who we will face.

The E-ky To The CF Problem

It’s no secret that we’ve been lamenting on a central forward problem in our national set-up. The team was crying out for a focal point to compliment the expressive wingers Malaysia has in their disposal. Step forward Shahrel Fikri (AKA Eky). The Perak forward stepped up to the occasion and took his chance by not scoring just a hat-trick, but a perfect hat-trick too.

First, he sidefoot Akhyar’s pass past the keeper with his right foot. Then not long later, he jumped the highest among the other players to head in Syazwan Andik’s corner. He could’ve got his hat-trick much earlier had his penalty not been saved by Timor Leste keeper Aderito Fernandes, but he made amends for it not long later by placing his shot perfectly with his left foot.

Eky stayed around the opponent’s penalty box and that in turn provided his teammates a focal point. He is perhaps the answer to our problem up front after a scintillating display.

The Pahang Connection

It was a joy to see right-back Matthew Davies & right-wing Mohamadou Sumareh combine on the right flank that gave the Timor Leste defenders all sorts of problems. Over both legs, the Pahang duo set each other with clever passing and lay-offs to penetrate the final third on the right.

Davies was his influential best as he continued his performance from the first leg while Sumareh could not be contained by the poor Timor Leste left-back, even if he had back-up to close him down. Sumareh was rewarded for his stellar performance with a goal in the 2nd leg. While Davies was not involved in any of the goals this time around compared to the first leg, he did more than enough to be a menace. Pahang fans, cherish this duo.

Timor Leste Can Improve

Timor Leste head coach, Norio Tsukitate perhaps has the unenviable job in ASEAN football. He has lamented over the lack of professionalism of his senior players and the questionable attitude of a few more of his young charges. Nevertheless, he should be commanded for improving the minnows since he took over last year. Their attack looked tenacious and expressive, especially the duo of the pacy Joao Pedro and the poacher Rufino Walter Gama. They looked threatening in the few attacks they had and got a goal in each leg as a result socred by the said duo.

However, they clearly still need to do a lot more work if they want to unnerve their opponents. There are a few things that still need improving. Firstly, their technique needs more work. They have an idea of where to play the ball next, but at some times, their passes looked way off the mark. Another department they need improving is defence. All four of the Timor Leste’s backline had a torrid two matches in dealing Malaysia’s attacks. They were either outsmarted, outrun, outmuscled or a combination of at least two of them by Malaysia’s attackers.

It’s clear Tsukitate’s taking his job seriously, but considering how far Timor Leste is behind the rest of ASEAN, it will take a few more years to see if Tsukitate’s methods will bear fruit.

A Slight Off Day

We perhaps should be grateful that we’re facing Timor Leste, because our defence uncharacteristically looked nervous throughout the second leg, especially the ever-reliable Shahrul Saad. With Farizal Marlias benched for Ifwat Akmal, Shahrul took over as captain, but he and Adam Nor Azlin perhaps have one of those days.

Both of them looked uncomfortable on the ball and Timor Leste’s pressing from the front did not help matters either. They lacked the composure to keep the ball in possession compared to the first leg. Neither of them picked up the space left for Rufino Gama as the forward was gifted a free header to score a consolation. If we want to show a lot more fight, we need to do better in defence.

Blessing In Disguise

It turned out losing to Singapore and in the process, not winning the Airmarine Cup in our own backyard three months ago was probably the best thing happened to Malaysia this year so far. Qualifying matches carried more weightage than friendlies to calculate points gained and loss in the FIFA World Rankings.

As a result of winning both legs along with the 2-0 win over Nepal before the qualifying tie, Malaysia won a huge number of points that allowed them to overtake Singapore and Indonesia in the FIFA World Rankings. This also comes after a combination of Singapore’s lapse in their 2-1 defeat to Myanmar and Indonesia’s poor judgment of playing a much stronger team in Jordan first that resulted in a 4-1 loss.

It also most likely resulted in Malaysia occupying the final spot in pot 4 of the World Cup/Asia Cup qualifying second round group draw. Although, the prospect of drawing our either one of our two closest neighbors is entirely possible as a direct consequence of the change in rankings.