The match against Japan will be a difficult but not impossible mission, and some veteran footballers say the Malaysian Olympic team can win if they go all out.
The team under coach Ong Kim Swee will face Japan on Sept 21 in their opening match of the 2012 Olympics Asian Zone final qualifying round.
Former national football team captain Datuk Soh Chin Aun said today that the match should be approached positively and fans should be confident in the ability of Malaysia's Olympic squad.
"The match is a good exposure for the team which is quite well built. Technically they are good, but they have to improve their level of discipline (on the field).
"Everyone knows that Japan are among the strongest in the world, but I think not many people are giving our team a chance. If our team is properly organised, and we keep our shape, play a bit more defensively and don't make mistakes, we should be able to get better results," he told reporters here.
Former international Datuk Santokh Singh predicts that Malaysia will beat Japan 2-1.
"The players should train very hard and should feel proud to play for the country," he said.
Former secretary-general of the Asian Football Confederation Datuk Peter Velappan hopes that the national squad will put up a tough fight against their fancied opponents.
"Now we see more attention given to training, good coaching and so on, so we expect them to play much better than before," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment