TAIPEH: Call it what you will. Whether it was the away blues, the yellow jersey curse or just plain bad luck (three penalties were conceded), there was no disguising the fact that a disaster was averted. There was no celebration at the end of a disjointed performance at the Taipeh Municipal Stadium as Malaysia advanced to the second round of the Asian World Cup qualifying only on the away goals rule after a 3-2 defeat to Taiwan levelled the aggregate score at 4-4.
The defeat left a bitter after-taste as the national team succumbed to a side ranked 165th in the world and national coach K. Rajagobal knew the performance left much to be desired.
Had it not been for Sharbinee Allawee Ramli saving the second of those penalties, Malaysia could well have suffered an embarrassing exit to a Taiwanese team inspired by 15,000 roaring fans who were given free admission..
"Taiwan started aggressively as they were going for the first goal and after we scored in the eighth minute, we should have played calmly.
"That goal should have given us the confidence to play better but we did not play our normal game. And when they scored, it was down to our own mistakes.
"More importantly, however, we are through to the second round but we must fix our mistakes and not repeat them," said Rajagobal, who made three changes to the side that won the first leg 2-1 in Bukit Jalil.
Norshahrul Idlan Talaha and Abdul Hadi Yahya started together upfront as Mahalli Jasuli came in at right-back while Taiwan handed a debut to Xavier Chen in their only change.
Whether Vietnamese referee Vo Minh Tri was justified to give away three penalties to the home team will be debated to no end.
Certainly the third spot-kick was doubtful with replays indicating Sharbinee had got his hands to the ball before Taiwan's Chen Po Liang went tumbling over.
Later, Vo denied Malaysia a legitimate penalty claim when Ahmad Fakri Saarani was sent spinning in the box.
"Never in my career have three penalties been awarded against my team. The third penalty, from where I was, I don't think should have been given. I'm not satisfied with the way we played but we did well in patches when attacking and Fakri should have had a penalty," added Rajagobal.
Aidil Zafuan Radzak and Safiq Rahim twice gave Malaysia the lead in the first half but each time Taiwan came back with some enterprising movement to rattle the visitors.
Aidil's thundering free-kick in the eighth minute, some 35 metres out which went in off the under-side of the bar, wiped out Taiwan's away goal advantage from the first leg.
Any pretension Malaysia had of coasting through the match was swept away by Taiwan's equaliser through Chang Han in the 31st minute.
Safiq, however, restored Malaysia's lead in the 40th minute when he curled a free-kick beyond the despairing dive of Lin Po Cheng.
But lessons were not learnt as Mahalli conceded possession cheaply and promptly gave away a penalty after clipping Chang Han from behind. Po Liang made it 2-2 from the spot off the hands of Sharbinee Allawee Ramli.
Hadi and Amirul had shots saved by Taiwan's replacement goalkeeper Pan Wen Chieh in the 58th minute before Fadhli Shas was adjudged to have pulled Po Liang down four minutes later.
Sharbinee rescued Malaysia by saving Po-Liang's penalty but it failed to galvanise the Malaysians as it was then the goalkeeper's turn to be penalised, harshly, as Po Liang took a tumble.
This time, Xavier stepped up to score on his debut and Malaysia rode out a few scares, not least when Lo Chih En sent a curling effort that almost found the top corner.
Malaysia: Mohd Sharbinee Allawee, Mohd Fadli Shas (Mohd Muslim Ahmad), Mohd Aidil Zafuan Abdul Razak, Mahalli Jasuli, Mohd Asraruddin Putra, Amar Rohidan, Safiq Rahim, Mohd Amirulhadi Zainal (S. Chanturu), S. Kunalan, Abdul Hadi Yahaya (Ahmad Fakri Saarani), Norshahrul Idlan Talaha.
Taiwan: Lin Po-cheng (Hsin Wei Sheng), Chang Yung-hsien, Lin Cheng-yi, Tsai Hsien-tang, Chen Yu-lin, Chang-han, Lo Chih-an (Wu Chun-ching), Lo Chih-en (Wu Pai-ho), Chan Che-yuan, Xavier Chen, Chen Po-liang.
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