Previous Report Cards: Asian Cup

According to wikipedia, these are Malaysia's past performance in the Asia Cup:
1956 - 1972 - Did Not Qualify (5 tournaments in total)
1976 - Round One
1980 - Round One
1984 - 2004 - Did Not Qualify ( 5 tournaments in total)
2007 - Qualified as Host

1976 - Iran
In 1976 when the tournament was held in Iran, Malaysia narrowly missed going into the semis, as the team finished last in Group A consisting of Kuwait, China and Malaysia. This despite having the same points with China, only losing out through goal differences:

Kuwait 2 - 0 Malaysia
China 1 - 1 Malaysia
Kuwait 1 - 0 China

The only goal scored was by the late Mokhtar Dahari. Malaysia actually scored first in the 50' minute, only for the Chinese to equalise 8 minutes later.

1980 - Kuwait
This was the team that consisted of (among others) players like Ramli Junit, Soh Chin Aun, Jamal Nasir, Abdaf Alif and Shukor Salleh and coached by Mohamad Che Su. In a group that also included Korea, Qatar, UAE and the host, Kuwait, Malaysia again missed the semis by coming out third in the group (1 point behind Kuwait that had 5).

Malaysia won 1 and lost 1 game, and drew 2 games.

They drew the game against Qatar and Korea (amazing!), lost 1 -3 to Kuwait and won 2 - 0 against UAE.