AFC Women's Asian Cup : Malaysia vs Thailand
Analysis of the Malaysia-Thailand AFC Women’s Asian Cup matchup.
First of all, let me preface this article with the following statement: I know the girls gave it their all in the game vs a technically and physically superior Thailand and will give their 120% against Palestine as well. I have no doubts about that. But we all know that the current Malaysian sporting system is not built to develop athletic talent; it has ulterior motives which I choose not to cover in this article here.
So, I am writing this article here from the perspective of a football performance analyst that wants to better the scene, the culture and change the minds of all footballers especially in Malaysia. To me, Football IQ is the most important thing in football. Your physical gifts and technical superiority will help you succeed at the elite level of football, but football IQ and tactical awareness is what will make a normal player, a great player; and a great player, a legend.
If you’ve read till this point and can’t find an agreement with even half of the statements above, please do close the tab straightaway, because it just doesn’t make sense to read on. I don’t want to waste your time. I don’t want to ruin your day. At the end of the day, we have different opinions and I can respect that.
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So you’ve decided to read on? Nice one.
In this article, I will speak the truth and nothing but the truth. As a performance analyst, I deal with objective data, meaning I try my best not to speculate. The only thing I’ll speculate from here on out is the thought-process of the girls on the pitch, of which I wholeheartedly welcome the players to come forward and change my mind.
Just a slight FYI, I watched through the full 90 minutes of the whole game, from when we conceded 2 goals in the starting 3 minutes all the way to Thailand scoring at the final whistle and till the players walked off the pitch. If I had the full game to review, I would have watched it again to confirm my inklings while watching the game. But I don’t, so I will work with what I have and go through the Extended Highlights provided so kindly by Astro Arena and will present my analysis from the game through these highlights instead!
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All that being said, here goes another chapter of #HighlightsAnalysis!
From watching the game, Thailand played with a fairly attacking 4-3-3 formation while Malaysia played with a fairly defensive 4-1-4-1 to counter. On paper, it seems like a good counter – we have 4 defenders to counter their 3 forwards, plus an extra CDM to shield passing lanes to the central striker. We gain the numerical superiority in midfield by playing 4 midfielders against Thailand’s 3. The only place we lose out to Thailand is our 1 forward matched up against their 3/4 defenders at the back. But that’s fine. We were set up to defend anyways.
Thailand 1-0 Malaysia
Straight from kick-off we have a highlight. If you’ve ever played Football Manager before, a kickoff highlight that goes beyond 15 seconds is never a good sign. Thailand’s LCB is allowed to bring the ball up to the middle third and play a splitting pass all the way through our midfield and defensive lines to the Thailand strikers.
The first problem here is the non-organization from our back line straight from kick off. All our Malaysian players are out of position.
Our RCB, Nur Faizah has stepped out and to be fair, was in decent position to intercept this pass. But she missed it and the Thai striker making a diagonal run into the space she left behind is able to shake off both captain Steffi and Malini (who is supposed to be our LB, but playing as the CDM in the first clip) to receive the ball in behind the defence. Our RB who is supposed to marking the opposing no7, gets pulled to the ball and the Thai no7 is left with acres of space for the cross.
The cross is cleared away by who I think is our CDM – #8 Faiqah, but our inexperience and nervousness showed as we struggled to recover the second ball and Thailand is back on the counter. Ignoring the pressure from Faiqah, the Thailand RW was able to put in a wonderful cross to find one of the 2 open players in the back post and the header is tapped home for the first goal of the game within all of 35 seconds.
Now, the Malaysian defenders tried their best to scramble after the loose ball, but ball-watching doomed us as Kanyanat Chetthabutr was able to time her run into the box perfectly to elude both our LB and RB. National GK, Azurin left wondering where all her defenders were.
Thailand 2-0 Malaysia
Not 1 minute later, Thailand are on the offensive again, and attacking our right side again.
This time, Thailand overloaded the right side with a narrow midfield 3. Our girls were pretty compact, but our spaces between units are wide + our defensive line was too un-flat. The Thai girls were able to get time and space to receive and play within our lines and was almost through on goal again, safe a crucial header from Nur Faizah.
But once again, we’re unable to secure the second ball and a Puskas-eligible attempt from another Thailand midfielder finds the back of the net for 2-0. With Azurin’s height in goal, it’s expected that we concede some goals in this way, but it was a truly a spectacular effort from Nutwadee.
Another thing I noticed here is that Malaysia were reacting to the ball rather than dictating which direction Thailand should be playing the ball to. That’s why Thailand is managing to play through us like knife slicing through butter. We allow them to set up nicely first, and then start chasing once the first pass is played. To be fair, this is a problem that most new teams face – similar to when the team that I currently work for started out. Players don’t know when to commit to the press because they’re not sure whether the people at the back will follow. Communication can help with this issue, but time to develop trust between the teammates will be the main factor in solving this problem.
The next highlight demonstrated how much our players’ marking have to improve. Direct from a corner, Pitsamai Sornsai was almost able to score Thailand’s third of the game within 10 minutes as she lost Malini en route to heading the ball off to the right of goal.
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Then came the first positive moment of the game for Malaysia. After a misunderstanding from Thailand’s backline, Henrietta Justine was able to nick the ball off them and produce a run forwards. Unfortunately, she had no support around her and was expected to do everything against 3 Thailand defenders. In the end, the most she could muster up was an on target shot attempt from more than 30 feet out, that was simple for the Thailand keeper to save.
I’m not sure if this was according to the tactical plan or was this down to the fitness of the players, but one thing I am sure, Malaysia definitely needed more help going forward in this game.
Henrietta winning the ball up high and dribbles towards goal but no one is there to support her. Even the 2 most forward midfielders aren’t sprinting forward to support the counterattack – conservation of energy or tactical? She’s forced to play 1v3 in the end and can only muster a long shot on target
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26th minute – Damn, does Steffi have a powerful right foot behind her. She’s not Malaysia’s #1 footgolf female player for no reason!
Thailand 3-0 Malaysia
Possession was given away cheaply by Faiqah (I think). Could’ve and should’ve brought the ball down to play, but the girls were exhausted at this point already. A through pass over to the wing area, with our defenders struggling to track back, and Kanyanat easily receives the cross to tap home the 3rd of the game.
In this situation, Faiqah ideally should’ve brought down the ball and let the team reorganize and catch their breath. However, an unfortunate clearance goes straight to the Thailand #8. Steffi, should maybe have played them offside once Thailand got the ball back, but I can’t blame her as the fatigue had probably started setting in by then after scrambling to recover several times in the first half hour.
Just before the first half whistle, the Malaysian Tigresses had another scare as Thailand’s Silawan Intamee was able to slip by Jessica Mailu to fire a cross across the 6-yard box, but the combo of Azurin and Steffi manages to just scramble the ball away for a corner kick.
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Second Half:
In my opinion, I was impressed with Malaysia’s low block defending coming out into the second half. The midfielders seemed to have dropped down to help out with the defense, to make the space in front of our penalty area more compact. Last ditch blocks and tackles were the name of the game for Malaysia in the second half. And I won’t be surprised if we can hold Palestine to less than 3 goals if we stick to this identity. Back to the highlights!
The first highlight came in the 55th minute, where a grounded corner option catches all the Malaysians off guard and Thailand is able to find their attackers wide open in the penalty area, only for Azurin to deny them their 4th goal.
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A similar situation 5 minutes later with a short corner being dribbled all the way into the penalty box and Azurin comes up with 2 BRILLIANT saves to deny the Thailand team again!
Within these 2 highlights, marking and clearances have been the issue here for the young Tigresses. Not being able to track the ball and their man at the same time in combination with the weak clearances just gifted Thailand 2 chances in the penalty area that they really should’ve buried.
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Almost immediately after this, Thailand nicks the ball off of RB Jessica right in front of the penalty box, and the ball is crossed into the penalty area, only for Kanyanat to take a bad first touch, allowing Azurin to collect the ball. In an ideal world, #5 Alice is either sticking close to Kanyanat or if she’s worried about the right winger, is at least communicating to Steffi to mark the Thailand striker.
Thailand once again takes advantage of the Malaysians reacting to the ball movement to open up space on the wing, where Taneekarn is able to take a potshot at goal, but Azurin extends her arms and calmly makes the save.
Directly from the goal kick, Malaysia lose possession again, and a Thailand midfielder is able to test Azurin with a long shot from range, but Azurin is able to collect the ball calmly.
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In the 70th minute, Liyana Soberi comes in with a high foot and wipes out a Thailander in the penalty box. Perhaps it was because of the sun, but the referee did not call a foul and played on. Another potshot taken from the left wing area and this one is saved by Azurin onto the post and cleared away by Liyana. Close call!
If there was VAR available, no doubt a penalty with a card would’ve been awarded.
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73rd minute, first signs of life from Malaysia going forward. Henrietta plays a delightful through ball over to Jaciah ‘JJ’ Jumilis, and she manages to get all the way to the penalty area before getting the ball cleared in behind for a corner. There is some potential there for the Malaysia Tigress to be a defensive, counterattacking team and adapting the model of KL City FC or PJ City FC in the Super League here.
By the 75th minute, most of the Malaysian’s players legs have stopped working. This is not surprising, considering they have only just started training fairly recently. Also, it is hard to set training distance and intensity, considering the women’s national side couldn’t have played a friendly against any team considering the fact they were training under a sports bubble model. One player whose legs weren’t entirely gone yet was Jessica Mailu as the no.9 tried to foil the left wing attack all by herself – trying for an interception and then making the recovery run for a late challenge.
In the end, Azurin manages to hold on to the ball for a short breather.
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Thailand once again decided to attack down the left wing once again at the start of stoppage time, but Jessica tenaciously keeps up with the right winger cutting inwards and apply enough pressure so that the shot taken was able to be easily dealt with by Azurin.
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Thailand 4-0 Malaysia
Tired legs don’t make for good defenders.
In the sequence leading up to the final goal, you could clearly see a 4v3 at the back. Steffi is forced to step out to stop the close down the midfielder, which leaves Kanyanat open in behind to coolly slot home the final goal of the game.
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‘Woman of the Match’ – Azurin Mazlan – Goalkeeper
Despite conceding 4 goals, the 21-year-old gave a great account of herself and showed that she can be the GK of the future for Malaysia going forward. Her impressive efforts in goal (and an improved second half defense) managed to secure a respectable final scoreline for Malaysia.
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Final thoughts:
Considering that this was a starting lineup with an average age of 24.3 years young, as well as an even younger average squad age of 23.65 years old, this is a decent result against a Thailand side, who is looking for their 18th appearance in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Final.
A lot of things that need to be improved on for Malaysia, but this was always going to be a learning curve for not only the girls and the coaching staff, but also for those in power at FAM, MFL and KBS. Rome was not built in a day. Don’t think a quality football team can be easily built in a month, or even a year. If you really want our players to succeed at the highest level of international football, be open and just when distributing the funding, start developing the grassroots scene, start teaching the right way of teaching football. If our whole culture can be changed gradually, I don’t see why Malaysia will have a problem repeat our past international honors.
As Captain Steffi put it before the game, “Nothing is Impossible.”
Once again, I wrote this article in a straightforward manner, with the honest intention of aiming to help the Malaysian women’s national team improve their game going into the match vs Palestine. The truth might hurt sometimes, and I’m sorry if I have offended anyone with the analysis in this article.
I would also like to wish the team Good Luck for their match vs Palestine on Wednesday. I will be following along and supporting you guys in spirit from the comfort of my room!
If you’ve read till this point, thanks for taking time out of your day to do so. If you like what you’ve read, I do similar analysis on my twitter account as and when I can. Do drop me a follow @m3ngMengz
Screenshots were from the highlight reels of Astro Arena (Due to technical issues we could upload the video in the article, we hope to resolve soon). Thank you for broadcasting the game and letting fans like us to express our input on the beautiful game. Photography credit goes to FAM.