The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 25 Nov 2011 04:18 PM PST NOV 26 — It was a sweet, sweet Monday night for all Malaysians as our football team managed to defend our gold medal at this year's edition of the SEA Games, in the final match against the host nation in front of an estimated crowd of 100,000 crowd — more than 95 per cent of whom were opposition fans. Definitely not an easy feat, especially for such a young team. We've seen this happen many times before in Malaysian football — promising young national team wins a title or medal, resulting in a huge wave of optimism amongst Malaysians, only for said team to then burn out spectacularly because of money, gifts and complacency. But as an ardent fan and follower of football in general, such pessimism has got a healthy potential to be proven wrong by this bunch of talented young footballers simply by virtue of the way they set out to play football. After watching all the matches involving our gold-winning team at this SEA Games, with the unfortunate exception of our group stage win over eventual silver medal winners and home team Indonesia because of work commitments, it really does seem that this is a team built on solid football foundation, namely a team built from the back, with an emphasis on defending properly and keeping possession of the ball. No matter how the games turned out, one thing remained constant in the team's performances, which is stout defending. Our opening game draw against Singapore might have been called a yawn-fest by observers everywhere, but what really struck me then was how disciplined our defence was, keeping their defensive shape very well and cutting out whatever potential threats that the Singaporean players might have to offer, and also at how hard the midfield worked to shield our defence, which is something I very rarely see in our national teams of late. We've even got an honest-to-goodness defensive midfielder who seems to be rather good at doing the sweeping up job in this fella called Gurusamy. It's a name that you won't find lauded in the newspapers after matches because we still love our attacking players the best, but in my humble opinion he is very much an integral part to how the team plays. It's an unglamorous job, breaking up attacks and stealing balls from the opposition, but without someone who can do this dirty job efficiently without getting booked, a team's midfield can be easily overrun. And in Guru and his 17-year-old substitute Nazmi, who may not be as good in the tackle as Guru is but seemingly possesses a passing range that's already quite impressive for someone so young, we have two quite able players in a position that's fast becoming crucial in the modern game. Just look at how important Claude Makalele was to Chelsea and lately Scott Parker to my beloved Tottenham Hotspur and England as examples of how underrated yet crucial this particular position is to make their particular teams click. When you combine that with the rock-solid back four, especially in the two central defenders, and the team's confident star goalkeeper Apek (who still flaps sometimes when it comes to crosses and corners, but I'm sure he can work on this part of his game), then you have a very solid bedrock on which an attractive attacking team can be built on. Looking at the Harimau Muda team for this SEA Games, it's wonderful to see us finally embracing a more modern and tactical football philosophy compared to the recent past in which you sometimes do wonder whether the players were even briefed on tactical formations, let alone set-piece tricks and basic defensive tactics like keeping a defensive shape and holding a defensive line. Or maybe they were briefed, but they just never had enough football brains or was never trained enough to embrace a football culture where such things are considered very important. Not this time though, as this set of players seems to have been raised on the importance of playing as a team and doing their respective jobs in the most disciplined manner, which I hope the players will take to heart well until the end of their playing days. This is basically why I believe that the boys and men in this young team have a much better chance of keeping their feet on the ground compared to all the promising young men in the previous teams that we, as a nation, have put our hopes on. Of course there is always a chance that this bunch will also burn out spectacularly as well, but by stressing on the importance of the team above and beyond star players and egos, we've at least taken the right first step in nurturing a healthy football mindset for the future. Congratulations Harimau Muda! * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| An eye-opener for newly-crowned champs Posted: 25 Nov 2011 04:06 PM PST NOV 26 — The match against Syria in the Olympic qualifier on Wednesday was for all intents and purposes a good thing, coming as soon as it did for our returning SEA Games football champions, the Malaysian Under-23 team. The game ultimately showed that the gap between our Tigers and the countries of West Asia is not as wide as previously thought. Despite the circumstances and the situation that the team were placed under last Monday in Jakarta, before and after winning the gold medal, it would still be fair to reassess the team with the latest result at hand. No player must ever be satisfied with, nor give excuses for, the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Syria but instead should aim to achieve the best. Still, I have to tip my hat to U-23 squad coach Ong Kim Swee and his players for a job well done in Jakarta. They won very much against the odds having been placed in the "group of death" to begin with. Congratulations are especially in order for our first successful defending of the SEA Games football gold in 32 years. The last and only other time such a feat was achieved by Malaysia was in 1979, in Jakarta too, after having won the gold two years before, in Kuala Lumpur.  Indonesia's Ferdinan Sinaga (in red) fights for the ball with Nazmi (centre) as team mate Muslim Ahmad goes to ground during the SEA Games football final at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta on November 21, 2011. — Reuters pic In addition to the existing players from the national squad who happen to be Under-23, the team led by Kim Swee showcased a few fresh faces who have proven their ability to even play at the senior level. It should be noted that on Monday, for nearly an hour, Muhd Nazmi Faiz Mansor, 17, was playing in an attacking midfield position rather than in his usual place as a holding midfielder. And during that hour, he seemed uncomfortable in this position. However, after K. Gurusamy was replaced, Nazmi was able to return to his original and more capable position and we began to launch more attacks. These young players should join Amar Rohidan in the middle of the senior team with Safiq Rahim given the task of an attacking midfielder. Credit also goes to the indomitable "back five" comprising goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi and defenders Mahali Jasuli, Muslim Ahmad, Fadhli Shas and Asraruddin Putra for having the right chemistry and understanding with each other. Our gold medal in Jakarta can be regarded as being built on this defensive cornerstone. Congratulations go out to Kim Swee for being a coach who successfully overcame several challenges to win and, in effect, defend our SEA Games gold medal achievement of 2009. By this achievement, he has also positioned himself as the favourite to take over Datuk K. Rajagobal as coach of the senior national squad. This brings about a dilemma for FAM as both coaches have shown the ability to handle the youth team and taken them to an age group championship at the regional level. So, do we have the calibre of coaches to replace these two SEA Games-winning coaches? Where previously the answer to Rajagobal's replacement as U-23 coach was obviously Kim Swee, the question now remains if we have already identified the latter's replacement instead? The relevant people at FAM and the Sports Ministry must understand that for the sake of the development of football in our country, the development of coaches is also very important. Finally, congratulations to Zainal Abidin Ismail Rawop and Razip for their 100 per cent bias when commentating on Malaysia's matches during this SEA Games gold medal run in Indonesia. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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