Under-15

BorakBola reported here that our Under-15 lads under Mr Who? are right now in England to enjoy the late English summer participate in the age-group competition which started on 29th July.

12 teams took part in the tournament which ended last Sunday.

Group A were Eldon Celtic (Berkshire), Cobham FC (Surrey), Actual Soccer (London) and Soccer Pro (Portugal) while Group B were Links FC (Surrey), Brunswick Youth (London), Bidvest Wits JFC (South Africa) and CD Guadiaro (SPAIN)

Malaysia were in Group C up against Beaconsfield FC (Berkshire), Pinnacle Youth (London) and Rorsjostaden (Sweden).

In fact, since the U15 were actually represented by the Bukit Jalil Sports School, the competition itself saw 'Malaysia' identified as 'Bukit Jalil Sports School' instead of 'Malaysia Under-15'. We assume this means that if the kids lost to some foreign academy or club then the defeat would not be too difficult to swallow. Technically, that makes it that 'Malaysia' didn't actually lose, only BJSS did. *phew*. That makes it alright then.

Okay, here comes the confusing part. Take a look at the results stated in the website for the Youth Tournament itself here and then compare it with the news from FAM itself. So which one is which? Did the U15 made it to the final or not?

Denied by Actual Soccer
6th August 2007 – The Malaysian national Under-15’s fabulous run in an age-group competition in London ended in the semi-finals yesterday when they lost out 1-2 to Actual Soccer.

The Malaysian lads had sailed through the preliminary round of the competition over the last week when they picked up seven points from three matches.

They drew with Pinnacle Youth 0-0 in their first game before beating Beaconsfield 6-1 in their second match and then a 1-0 victory over Rorsjostaden IF of Sweden in their final group tie.

They then overcame Brunswick 2-1 in the quarter-finals for the right to play against Actual Soccer in the last four.

“It was a little unfortunate not to be able to make the finals when we were so close but that’s football. The boys will just have to take the positive lessons from this tournament and develop from here,” added Aminuddin Hussin, the head coach of the Malaysian national Under-15 team from London.
Taken from FAM's website

King of Excuses

As long as the power-crazy King Yob is still anywhere near Wisma FAM, Malaysian football will remain where it is - the pits.

Fans Will Be Torn Between Malaysia Cup And CYC Matches Tomorrow

Oversight, ignorance or sheer arrogance... whatever you want to call it, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) remains defiant of the fact that the biggest youth football spectra - the Champions Youth Cup (CYC) - will begin tomorrow.

Despite the fact that Malaysia are hosting and playing the opening match of the CYC tomorrow against Bayern Munich in Kuching, the FAM has decided to go ahead with the Malaysia Cup fixtures scheduled tomorrow.

"We have no choice but to go ahead with the Malaysia Cup matches as any delay will offset our plans to have the final before the fasting month which is expected to begin on Sept 13.

"Furthermore, when the fixtures were set, the CYC dates were not finalised," FAM Competition Chairman Datuk Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar told Bernama when contacted today.

Tomorrow, the first leg of the Malaysia Cup quarter-finals will see three matches, namely Selangor vs Terengganu (Shah Alam Stadium), Negeri Sembilan vs Sabah (Paroi Stadium, Seremban), Perlis vs Perak (Utama Stadium, Kangar).

The Kedah vs Melaka was however postponed to Thursday as both the Darul Aman Stadium and the Hang Jebat Stadium are being used for the CYC. The second leg takes place on Aug 15.

The CYC is an Under-19 tournament that features 14 top clubs in the world together with host Malaysia and the Qatar national team.

The FAM general secretary, Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad when contacted refused to comment on the clash of fixtures and asked this reporter to speak to the Competitions Committee instead.

Last Thursday, Bernama had highlighted the clash of dates to Raja Ahmad and forwarded a Short Message Service (SMS) message to Dr Ibrahim who did not answer a number of calls earlier.

According to Raja Ahmad, a meeting was held subsequently but it was decided that it would be too late to make any changes as the final had been fixed for Sept 8.

The CYC which kicks-off tomorrow ends on Aug 19.
Taken from BERNAMA

Full of Amnesiac Morons (F.A.M)

Here's a very good articles by Rizal Hashim of The Malay Mail:

Sometimes we suffer from temporary amnesia. For the average Joe, the way the brain codes and stores information remains a mystery.

Likewise the FA of Malaysia remains a huge mystery, even for some who have been keeping tabs on its policies and decisions over the past two decades. Some of its leaders may be suffering from short-term or long-term memory loss, perhaps by choice.

A case in point is certainly its recently-established task force to probe the disastrous Asian Cup outing.

First of all, it is beyond anyone’s comprehension that the members of the panel are those who have been party to the decline.

FAM deputy president Datuk Redzuan Tan Sri Sheikh Ahmad is the chairman. Forming the panel are vice-presidents Datuk Anifah Aman and Datuk Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar, general secretary Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad, former Perak and national youth coach M. Karathu and Windsor John, FIFA Development offi cer based in Malaysia and who was formerly the head of research and development of FAM. Windsor, since then, has withdrawn.

The secretary is E.R. Subramaniam, a salaried staff of FAM since 2001. National coach Norizan Bakar, manager Anifah, independent writer Lazarus Rokk and FAM technical director Robert Alberts will submit their reports to the Task Force.

Grouse No 1 – None of them are entirely independent of FAM, with some having business links with the national body.

Grouse No 2 – The public is getting impatient, restless and tired of FAM’s committees.

If Redzuan can recall, an independent task force was formed to look into the Under-23 team’s 7-0 drubbing by Thailand in August 2005. It did not recommend for coach Bertalan Bicskei to be axed and instead he be allowed to continue until the Manila SEA Games. What did Redzuan and his cohorts do? They sacked Bicskei.

Grouse No 3 – Redzuan announced FAM’s desire to gather feedback from the public.

This must be one of the biggest jokes of the century. If Redzuan and the rest had bothered to read the papers and watch prime time TV, they would have gotten the signal by now. Bucketful of letters to editors, text messages, e-mails and “live” phone calls, concluded that FAM top brass must resign en bloc. That is the only way to start afresh.

Let’s not debate whether a mass resignation would serve any purpose or not.

Grouse No 4 – Perhaps Redzuan failed to advise the members of the task force of a forum held eight years ago. For the benefit of those who suffer from either short-term or long-term memory loss, a forum was organised by the National Sports Council (NSC) upon directive from the then Sports Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin, who wanted a comprehensive master plan to provide answers and panacea to our ills. Whatever happened to the resolutions?

Grouse No 5 – Let this not be the PriceWaterhouseCoopers issue Mark II, when FAM paid the audit firm more than RM200,000 in an exercise to identify the best candidate to replace Datuk Dell Akbar Khan as the general secretary in mid-2005. In the end Ibrahim, a vice-president then, was appointed. Rosli Hussein, who was identified as the man, was made the assistant general secretary but resigned in a huff last year.

Grouse No 6 – Why does it have to be two months before a report or a finding from the Asian Cup debacle be made known? Why does FAM have to wait for AFC’s technical report? FAM has a number of experts, namely Alberts, B.Sathianathan, K. Rajagopal and I. Gopalkrishnan, to name a few, to study the technical aspects of the team in Group C. Curiously, the report can only be made public after the FAM elections next month. By then the FAM new Cabinet could parade, among others, Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and UPB-MyTeam president, Khairy Jamaluddin.

Grouse No 7 – Is it true a former FAM officer was tasked to prepare a report for Ibrahim? It seemed as if it was only yesterday that FAM can boast of being the best organised and above all, the richest sports association in the country.

President Sultan Ahmad Shah and his men, the previous officebearers, mind you, had propelled the association from the archaic ranks of the mid-Eighties into the professional era.

The game evolved from the swamps of amateurism into a multi-million ringgit monster.

But this brought about a crisis of identity. A professional game of immense potential caught in the drag of amateurism and shady individuals motivated by self interest.

This task force will be another exercise in futility.
Taken from The Malay Mail

Our Own Hindustani Heroes

We are still unsure what to call the Under-20 and handsome coach K Rajagobal. If you have any suggestion, please email us.

Hakim left a comment that we missed reporting a unique event where for once, we were not on the receiving end of a SEVEN goal drubbing. Nice of him to catch that news before us. Actually, BorakBola have been closely following the results from the AFF website [www.aseanfootball.org] as news from everywhere else have been scarce but even then the results at the AFF website is quite slow. So we've been slow as well to report on this.

Someone out there gasped. "What? It wasn't us who got whipped? Nooo". Well, Yes. and we'll get to that in a bit.

Okay, okay. Some of you might been left in the dark here. Allow us to explain. There is an ASEAN Football Federation U20 Tournament going on right now in Vietnam. It started on the 31st of July and involves the AFF members. Yes, you can call it the Tiger Cup for the kids. (Tiger Cub Cup? Hehehe)

The Malaysian Under-20 squad, is in Group A, along with Myanmar, Singapore and Laos. K Rajagobal is looking at this competition to allow the boys gain some exposure and experience before the AFC Qualifiers in October.

Game One: Malaysia v Singapore (1 Aug)
In the first game, K Rajagobal boys defeated Singapore 3-0 with goals from Yusanee Saad and Ahmad Fakri Saarani in the first half and Firdaus Azizul scored the third in the 63rd minute. Surprisingly (we really should be giving our boys more credit than this, but really it's a surprise), despite Singapore looked like the likelier team to score first, Malaysia scored against the run of play when Yusanee headed in from a cross while the Young Lions keeper was still alighting his MRT at Bedok.

Singapore didn't help themselves when they were down to 10 men after Nurhazwan Shaik was expelled for a second yellow card. Despite the fact that our own Muhammad Irfan Ghani was also shown the red card for a second bookable offence late in the game, Malaysia managed to hold on for the win.

Game Two: Malaysia v Myanmar (3 Aug)
In a match which was eventually to decide the top two teams from Group A, Malaysia lost narrowly after Myanmar scored from a looping freekick in the 89th minute to end the game 2-1 to Myanmar.

Captain K Gurusamy managed to level the score earlier in the 82nd minute after Myanmar had scored from another set-piece in the first half, but Malaysia were unable to ride the pressure.

This means, that Malaysia would need at least a draw in their last game with Laos to qualify for the knock-out phase. The game against Laos was played yesterday and we searched all over for the results in the local media but we couldn't find it (damn these FAM glasses!). Of course, when Hakim alerted us to it we scooted over the AFF's website and there it was...

Game Three: Malaysia v Laos (5 Aug)
The knack of coming back after conceding, (in this particular instance, twice) is surely a positive (even if it's not good for the heart) point of the U-20s.

The game started at the Thanh Long Sports Complex in Hanoi in the rain where within 5 minutes, Laos took the lead with a shot from the top of the penalty area. Laos continued with the long shot tactic throughout the first half whereas Malaysia wanted to bring the ball closer to the opposition's keeper before taking a crack on goal.

And when the sun came out and Laos failed to sustain the pressure, Malaysia's tactic proved to be fruitful and they grabbed the equaliser through Mohd Syazwan Zinon with two minutes left to the break.

Laos then scored again after the break as the Malaysian players were still digesting their halftime Powerbars but superskipper K. Gurusamy did a replay of the Myanmar game by pulling level before putting them ahead with a header after that.

With that, Laos collapsed and Malaysian opened the floodgates with goals from Abdul Shukor Jusoh (77th minute), Firdaus Azizul (82nd) and Yusaini Che Saad (89th).

In injury time Myanmar scored another goal but Malaysia made it a magnificent seven with a yet another strike through Mohd Shazlan Alias for the final scoreline of 7-3.

Yes, you didn't read wrong and we are not pulling your leg. Rajagobal boys did slam the net seven times.

Well done boys. Well done for keeping the flame alive.

Malaysia will now meet Group B leaders Thailand in the semi-final tomorrow. We wish them, the best of luck.

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.