Malaysia played their second friendly after the Asian Cup squad was selected against UAE in Stadium MBPJ yesterday. It was heartening to see that despite the rain and traffic, the stadium was filled with fans (not completely, of course, but the number was quite good and it was a positive sign that the fans are still hoping and backing up Norizan Bakar's boys. It helped that it was free so those of you who felt the rain was too much to come over, you missed it - it's not often that you can get to see a national team play a friendly against another national team for free. Which means that probably the money which we questioned earlier (RM300,000) given by FAM to the Asian Cup team, was probably used to offset the cost of bringing these teams here, holding these free matches etc etc. If THAT is really the case, then we at BorakBola apologise for questioning which is after all, part of the taxpayers' money.
Anyway, we didn't quite expect the good turnout. We are bad with estimating crowds but it looked pretty good to us. Not Premiership or La Liga good, but good considering it IS the Malaysian team we are talking about here and it was also a Thursday night and when most Klang Valley residents were caught in the jam.
Anyway, back to the game itself. It is obvious that Bruno Metsu's boys weren't in the mood to be as generous as the Cambodians. We are expected that this is a different class of team altogether and it was a good reminder to the Pasukan Kebangsaan that more things need to fixed and done before the Asian Cup tournament begins. The visitors adapted well to the wet surface and despite the fact the Malaysian started quite brightly, it was the visitors who scored early in the ninth minute as a result of bad passing between the Malaysian players.
The remaining first half was uneventful with both teams finding ways to probe each others' defences although the UAE lookied more dangerous with surging runs on their right flank which occassionally troubled the Malaysian defence. What was lacking to the Malaysian game was someone to dictate the midfield and string in the passes and provide service to both Akmal and Hairuddin. It seemed that Malaysia was content to go through the left side with Rosdi Talib and Ivan Yusoff working hard but could not throw the crosses in. It was left to Hairuddin and Akmal to try and breakthough with passes between each other but this was difficult with the UAE defence playing high and with no support. Hardi Jaafar didn't play and we couldn't see him in the subs bench and we wonder what's happened to him. It was clear that the midfield missed the Melaka Telekom playmaker.
Perhaps coach Norizan Bakar was experimenting with a defence-minded midfield because he started with Norhafiz Zamani and Shukor Adan in the middle (a strategy when meeting stronger, more offensive teams?) but BorakBola felt that this pairing was neither here nor there because there were on many occassion that UAE strolled through the middle of the park with no cover and backtracking by both players. And this midfield pairing didn't help much with the attack. In fact we were thoroughly disappointed with Shukor's performance - he was not covering anyone, not helping with the defence, watched whenever the UAE attacked and didn't do much with the offence either. It almost seem he had half his mind in the upcoming second leg of the FA Cup between his state team Selangor and Kedah. Hopefully that this is only a one-off thing because Shukor is a good player, usually hardworking, strong in tackling and could muck it in the middle against anyone.
So much so that during the first half, the only chances Malaysia has was a header by Hairuddin from an Ivan cross and a free-kick by Akmal - both of which that sailed wide of the goal.
We must say that pairing of K Nanthakumar and the captain Muhammad Khaironnisam was quite good in the first half. They were calm and composed but lost their concentration a bit in the second half to allow the two other goals (probably down to fatigue). Azizon Kadir in goal looked okay. He wasn't tested much and frankly it was not much he can do with the goals as they were scored from mostly point blank range.
The goals Malaysia conceded in the second half were simply, as a result of bad passes, poor clearance. and no covering support from the midfield. In a nutshell, it was down to poor concentrate. Something that team must improve if we were to stand a chance against better teams such as Iran and China.
But the breath of fresh air was the introduction of Eddie Helmi. The scorer of two goals against Cambodia was lively on the right flank and looked a threat with his clever runs. In fact he threw in two passes to Akmal which the latter missed. But deep in injury time he made another good run to the UAE box and crossed neatly to Akmal to slot in. This provided much cheer to the Malaysian supporter who still, from what it seemed, believed in the team and still hoping.
Our next friendly is against Jamaica in a week's time and meanwhile, at the same time yesterday our neighbour and Asia Cup co-host, Indonesia, managed to beat Jamaica 2-1 in a friendly of their own in Jakarta. Their goals were scored by former Selangor striker, Bambang Pamungkas. Indonesia has won two out of their last 3 friendlies (winning against Hong Kong and Jamaica, losing to Singapore). So if we are able to maintain concentration and work on our passes, there's a chance it won't be much of a holiday for the touring Reggae Boyz.
Man of the match for Malaysia: Eddie Helmi
Need more work: Shukor and Hairuddin. More passing drills Cikgu Jan!
Full Time Result:
Malaysia 1 - UAE 3
Venue:
Stadium MBPJ
Goals:
Akmal Rizal (injury time)
Players Used:
Azizon Kadir, V. Thirumurugan, Mohd Khaironnisam Shahabuddin, K. Nanthakumar (Mohd Aidil Zafuan Abdul Razak, 73rd), Rosdi Talib, Mohd Ivan Yusoff (Mohd Norfarhan Mohamad, 56th), Norhafiz Zamani Misbah (Mohd Fadzli Saari, 63rd), Mohd Shukor Adan, Shahrulnizam Mustafa (Eddie Helmi Manan, 55th), Akmal Rizal Rakhli, Hairuddin Omar.
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