The Unders

Post Asian Cup, we continue briefly with some heartwarming news from the motley crew of The Unders - our various Unders Squads. Next week The Maggi Boys will see some action in Kuching in the CYC while, which some of us might not be aware, the Under-20 squad is braving the quirky monsoon in Vietnam for the Asean Football Federation (AFF) U20 Championship. But for this post, let's continue with the Travelling Boys.

The Travelling Boys
The Travelling Boys are, well, packing and unpacking their luggages in Europe at the moment, specifically in Slovakia where they are preparing themselves for the SEA Games which will happen in December. Remember that they will play in the Merdeka Invitational Tournament sometime later this month (from 20th August). And before they leave for Korat, they will fly to Myanmar for the Challenge Cup.

Naturally, we are still puzzled why the fascination with Slovakia for the 300-Pages Passport Man. Perhaps the birds there are lovelier than the ones we have here? Only 300-Pages Passport Man knows best.

What we know,is that despite it's a brilliant summer up there in Central Europe and the Carpathian mountains, the relative humidity there ranges around the low 30's, while back home, WHERE THE MERDEKA INVITATIONAL WILL BE HELD, the relative humidity is around 65 - 70. For you non-meteorologist out there, this means, it will be much hotter back home here in Kuala Lumpur, than it will ever be than in anywhere near Bratislava. If even before this, professional league players from teams such as Manchester United and Barcelona have complained about the humidity in this region, how clever it is to send a bunch of young kids - which we bet our asses are less fitter than the European players - to 'prepare' in Europe, when they should be conditioning themselves here instead. After all, the next three assignments are in SOUTH EAST ASIA, and the earliest one will be merely 3 weeks away!

By the way, even if the Thais are in Germany at the moment preparing themselves, they will not play in the Merdeka Tournament. Which means they don't need to condition themselves to the region that soon, plus Korat is their backyard.

What's even ironic is that the Indonesian U-23 team are coming here, yes, in KL! Preparing themselves for the Merdeka Tournament and using KL as a training base instead.

We like the part when 300-Pages Passport Man said that he hoped the 'tour' will "change his boys into men". We hope he's not referring to any visit to some crimson coloured area in the capital.

Check out this news report from FAM's website. Is it just us who find it weird that they only confirmed their second opponent AFTER arriving in Bratislava?:

SLOVEN BRATISLAVA FOR U23

2nd August 2007 – The Malaysian national Under-23 team currently in Slovakia has confirmed a game against Sloven Bratislava as their second opponent after picking Vion FC as their first test.

The youth side which is being prepared for the SEA Games at the end of the year arrived in Vion yesterday and where they have been slated to play Vion FC tomorrow.

“The boys look tired (when we arrived in Slovakia at 5.45pm) but we immediately trained at 7pm,” said national Under-23 head coach B. Sathianathan.

“We did light workout at the Vion training centre before having dinner at around 8pm. The weather is super with the temp at around 24 degrees.

“We have eight opponents to choose from and I will pick the strong teams to play with.”

MALAYSIA NATIONAL UNDER-23 TEAM
Mohd Nasril Mat Nourdin, Chun Keng Hong, Mohd Amirulhadi Zainal, Mohamad Syamsol Sabtu, Mohamad Zaquan Adha Abd Radzak, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha, Shahurain Abu Samah, Sumardi Hajalan, K. Thanaraj, Mohd Daudsu Jamaluddin, Samransak Kram, Mohd Khyril Muhymeen Zambri, Muhamad Zamri Chin, Mohd Farizal Marlias, Wan Azwari Wan Nor, Henry Parsi, Mohd Nizam Abu Bakar, Mohd Faizal Mohd Yusoff, Mohd Amirul Omar, Ahmad Shahril Zakaria, Mohd Azrul Ahmad, Mohamad Aidil Zafuan Abd Radzak, Azi Shahril Azmi, Mohd Safee Mohd Sali, Mohd Nor Farhan Muhammad, Joseph Kalang Tie, Mohd Azril Abd Hamid.