Malaysian Under-23 coach Ong Kim Swee is placing extra emphasis on defensive drills ahead of their Herculean task against Japan in the Asian Zone final round qualifying match for the 2012 London Olympics.
The former international said they had better be prepared for the top seeds as “we know there is a vast disparity in standards between Japan and Malaysia”.
“Let’s not kid ourselves. Japan are one of the strongest, if not the strongest, teams in Asia and we have to find a way to stop them. And one way is to work on our defensive discipline in trainings. It won’t be easy to defend against a team like Japan but we’ll have to try,” said Kim Swee after putting his players through a workout at the Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya yesterday.
Malaysia open their Asian Zone qualifying campaign in Group C against Japan in Fukuoka on Sept 21 before taking on Syria (Nov 23) and Bahrain (Nov 27) at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
Kim Swee will be counting on centrebacks Mohd Muslim Ahmad (pic)and Mohd Fadhli Shas to hold the fort with Mahalli Jasuli, Mohd Asraruddin Putra Omar and Mohd Zubir Azmi.
In fact, Mohd Muslim and Mohd Fadhli played a pivotal role in the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2009 when, against all odds, Malaysia qualified for the second round of the men’s football competition for the first time in 32 years.
They edged Kyrgyzstan (2-1) and lost to eventual champions Japan 0-2 and China 0-3 in Group A to advance as one of the four best third-placed teams. Malaysia then bowed out of the competition after losing 1-3 to formidable Iran.
“I have been told that Japan have the bulk of the players from the Asiad squad. We had sent our scout Khalid (Shahdan) to watch the Japanese Olympic side beat their Australian counterparts 3-1 in a friendly recently. The feedback I got was that their attack is awesome,” said Kim Swee.
No comments:
Post a Comment