Whatever pre-match hype that the team had before, are thrown out of the window. The doubters remain in doubt and the critics and non-believers justified and stand corrected.
BorakBola would like to try and be fair today, and leave FAM out of last night's game assessment, as we would like to highlight and discuss only the formation, tactics and performance of the Pasukan Kebangsaan yesterday. We will return to FAM in another write-up.
Coach Norizan Bakar, and FAM itself were asking for the fan's support. And the fans came, nearly 20,000 of them. Although it may seem like a small number considering the fact that the National Stadium can accommodate up to 80,000 people, we have to remember that it was a match held on a Tuesday in the Klang Valley and with promotions and publicity for the tournament abysmal to say the least, the number of fans that turned up yesterday was quite heartening.
BorakBola have already stated that the Malaysian fans are a fickle lot but very, very forgiving. Remember that this is the team that had lost their last two friendlies when other Asian Cup hosts won theirs. And this is also the team which is considered no-hopers and the bashing boys of the tournament. Yet the fans came decked in the yellow and black colours of the Pasukan Kebangsaan, carrying the Jalur Gemilang, singing songs, beating the drums and blowing into the home-made mini air-horns. Young and old, Malay, Chinese and Indian, even foreigners, parents with little children, husbands and wives, people came because they still believed. Despite whatever the feelings in the air was, the fans never stopped giving the team chances.
Hope is sometimes a dangerous thing to have, let alone to flame it again and again. And yet after tonight's performance, hope is something we must not let go for it is one of the few last thing we have and must hold on to. After the fourth goal was conceded by Malaysia, the fans were beginning to turn over their own team. Each player's touch was greeted with boos from the home fans and each attack by China was greeted with cheers. There were even minor scuffles, fight and taunting between the local fans. But to prove the point stated earlier, the stadium erupted again the moment Indra Putra slotted in Malaysia's only goal of the match and the fans were singing and chatting again
If the players are upset by the fans' reaction, they really shouldn't be. What we need to remember that the fans are an informed and knowledgable lot. Fed with quality performances shown on ASTRO from the English, Spanish and Italian leagues on a regular basis, the fans, BorakBola admit, are a demanding lot with high expectations. They KNOW quality when they see one. But bear in the mind the same set of fans are still grounded and rational, and do not expect the Malaysian players to be as skillful or talented as their European, South American and East Asian counterparts. They are not asking for the impossible - say to be beat Brazil. Judging from the comments heard after the game yesterday, what the fans want were passion, determination, commitment and some 'play with brains' shown by the Pasukan Kebangsaan. After all, if our neighbours and co-hosts Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are able to put up a good fight and good show, why can't we? Around the country fans went to stadium or watching at home were silently saying to themselves, "we are here, surprise us." But the team did not. 1- 5 is surely what secretly some fans expected it to be, perhaps glad that it wasn't more. Malaysians knew it was a mountain of a task to begin with, yet disappointment still hang in the air.
In truth, there is nothing wrong with a traditional, (or some might say a conservative) 4-4-2 set up. Like we stated earlier before the match, coach Norizan Bakar was mum about the exact starting line-up before the match. As the starting eleven's names were displayed on the scoreboards and the players paraded onto the field, BorakBola was quite surprised with the centreback pairing of Norhafiz Zamani - Kaironnisam because it means that coach Norizan was backtracking on his experiment of pushing our #5 to the midfield and it was also something daring to do to have a diminutive centreback defending against taller oppositions. We suspected it was because Norizan was adapting to China's 4-5-1 and not worrying about marking Han Peng. We expected the taller Nanthakumar to start to add height to an already vertically-challenged backline but this was not the case. We hoped that this was part of some interesting strategy that was cooked-up by the coach from Perlis. Other than that, the remaining starters were as expected. Here was the starting line-up:
In truth, here are somethings that we should already be aware off, but we keep failing to do anything about:
1) Nearly 3/4 of the team are simply, not able to perform in a world-class match, let alone don the national jersey.
2) Nearly all are not fit and lack basic technique such as passing the ball and controlling it or lacking first touch. If indeed most of the players are skillful, the basic element of even stopping the ball was missing altogether
3) The players sometimes lacked the composure and mental toughness needed in an international game
4) Thinking on the ball, creativity and the ability to follow match orders and to maintain discipline is also non-evident
5) With all of the above, playing long balls or kicking it over the top of the opposition's pitch time and time again in match versus a team filled with taller players who have ten times better technique is surely a recipe for disaster.
There is an on-going joke among fans that say, "are any of the players watching any Premiership, La Liga or Liga Italia games on TV? Because if only these players spend a year watching these games, they would know how to open up the game, and to play with their brain". Perhaps add some training by playing Konami's Winning Eleven series on the Sony Playstation2. Or even play futsal with the amateurs or weekend players at the many futsal centres around the country to develop their triangle passing game and first touch.
What was clear was that there is a big gap in terms of match awareness, the brain for the game and footballing techniques between the Malaysian national team and China. Why is this so? Is it because China has a bigger pool of talents to choose from? Better funding received from their government compared to ours? Better coaches and training methods?
What makes the fans more upset is because the same excuses are used again and again - "the opponent was more faster, taller, stronger etc". Perhaps it is a valid excuse but again, it takes a unique Asian Cup tournament that have four host from the same region - each having players around the same built and height, (perhaps) consuming the same type of food and diet, having around the same type of funding and development - to show that this reason no longer can be used freely. Each team should able to pull out all the resources available, play to their strongest abilities, and minimise the weaknesses.
Qatar knew technically they would not be able to pit individual talents against Australia, will almost half the team plying their trade at the English leagues, but they knew how Australia would turn up and play and were clever enough to maintain defensive discipline, working as a team allowing the Australians to press them and hitting them on the breaks instead. This tactic made the former Oceanic team exhausted in the hot and humid conditions and making them realise that a change of approach is needed and that switching to the AFC is not as easy as it looks.
Indonesia watched videos of Bahrain again and again and learned that the only way to stand a chance was to keep the ball on the ground.
Yet again and again Malaysia did not learn and realise that they are shorter than the Chinese, kicking the ball up in the air or allowing for high crosses.
And it's about time that we keep this "size matters" argument to rest for a while - because nearly half of the Mexican national team have a height on 1.70 m or 5'7" but this have not stopped them surely. It all boils down to the basics.
To quote a fan, Malaysian players need to learn to stroke the ball and love the ball. It was evident yesterday that the Malaysian players were treating the ball with disdain, and giving it no respect whereas the Chinese played with precision because they know how fast or how slow the ball needed to be passed, to be stroked. Five goals on poor field such as National Stadium. The fan wonders what the scoreline would have been in a faster, better pitch.
Apparently, from the post-match interviews, Malaysia went out with a plan. “The game plan tonight was to try and stop the crosses but as the game went on and China continued to move the ball, then we lost our shape and that is why there was room on the flanks.” but the plan failed because as Norizan put it, "tthen they did we tended to lose our discipline in terms of keeping our shape, ”.
Well Cikgu Jan, none of us at the stadium saw such plans. Both Fauzie Nan and Rosdi Talib were not marking or covering anyone on the flanks and most of China's attack started with a long, cross-field pass from their defence right up to their attacking players on the left and right side of the Malaysian penalty box where these players were unmarked, unnoticed by the Malaysian players (but noticed by 20,000 odd fans in the stands)
By the time the ball has reached these attacking players, it was a case of either Rosdi or Fauzie scurrying over to prevent the cross, only to be dummied or shimmied once by a step-over or outpaced, and a simple looping cross to find Han Peng's head and the centrebacks in dissarray not knowing who was now marking who or doing what.
Norizan added that “We have to learn that as a team we need to work together. We cannot simply sit back and do things as individuals and then make mistakes that will affect the team. With the quality players China have, we tried to have a positive approach and to match them not individually but as a team. As they progressed though, when one individual lost his concentration it impacted on the team."
We wonder whether this attitude is prevalent because the technical team forgot to drum the hard fact that football is a team game or because the players are too stubborn to accept it. Either way, it's appalling that already into the first match of the tournament that this matter was not or has not been addressed to earlier. Teamwork does not happen overnight.
Next: Player by Player Analysis
