Let The Asian Cup Begin! Err...What Asian Cup?

Welcome to the AFC Asian Cup tournament! The Pasukan Kebangsaan will 'turun padang' tonight playing in the first match of Group C playing against the runners-up of the previous Asian Cup, China.

For those of you who are not aware that there's a game tonite, let alone that we are already into the third day of the 2007 Asian Cup, I don't blame you. For the record, the local organisers (who I suspect must be FAM) have been simply, APPALLING! I wonder whether the organisers were given funds before hand and if they did, what have they been doing with it?

Promotion has been pityful, if we can even call them that. There's a small black & white corner print ad in some English dailies maybe a few weeks before the start of the tournament; buntings started to crop around city centres a week before; there are some RapidKL buses covered in the ad; there's a link on the website for the The Star; perhaps some mention in the sport section on TV news; apparently there were two events organised by Nike in Dataran Merdeka and Shah Alam which nobody knew (except people who knew Nike). It was so bad that according to news report, there weren't even anything to welcome the teams that were staying at the official hotel here.

Malu! And this is Visit Malaysia Year. The country's 50th years since independence. And the biggest FIFA-sanctioned tournament for the continent. Heck, even the Champions Youth Cup have more placements in the newspaper. Maybe it's because 99% of the farts at our national FA are Manchester United fans and are still upset the they are unable to watch the current EPL Champs gracing the hard turf of Bukit Jalil and forgot that the Asian Cup is going on.

I say that Nike Malaysia is guilty as well. Nike Indonesia are going around calling out "Ini Kandang Kita!" and a special publicity drive for the Timnas - with special billboards for Ponaryo Astaman, Bambang and Elie Aboy. But heard anything new from Nike Malaysia lately?

That aside. I hope that all these won't distract the focus of the team. After poor showings in friendly matches against UAE and Jamaica, the national team is struggling to give a good account for themselves - with many section of the fans have already written off their chances. While the country's expectations remained low, apathetic even, members of the Pasukan Kebangsaan themselves are eager to give a good showing in the tournament and prove doubters wrong. We hope that this is not merely lip service and that they really mean business, because in football anything can happen. Results from the other groups have given the team a slight boost, with Thailand getting a draw with Iraq, Vietnam beating UAE and unfancied Oman drawing with pre-tournament favourites Australia.

Tonight is when we shall see whether Malaysia Boleh or not.