THEY came in as outsiders and went out with a fairy-tale ending.
Nobody gave Malaysia a chance to get past the group stage of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) championship, especially with a young and inexperience side.
Coach K. Rajagopal was a proud man after his boys were crowned as champions for the first time in the biennial tournament, which was introduced since 1996.
“This is a great achievement for a team made up of international senior rookies,” said Rajagopal, whose side were involved in a one-month battle in the championship.
He said that many wrote them off after the humiliating defeat by Indonesia (1-5) in the opening group match in Jakarta on Dec 1.
And few had faith in the young side’s ability to bounce back and surprise the more established and fancied sides like Vietnam and Thailand.
But Malaysia held three-time winners Thailand to a goalless draw in their second group match.
And then, they knocked out defending champions Vietnam 2-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals.
In their other group match, they thrashed Laos 5-1.
Last night, they beat favourites Indonesia 4-2 on aggregate to win the Suzuki Cup.
Rajagopal said that his boys held on well in the first half and were fortunate that Indonesian skipper Firman Utina failed to convert a penalty to give his side an early goal in the 15th minute.
“Of course, if he had scored the goal, it would have spurred his side to come for more,” said Rajagopal at the post-match conference.
Indonesian coach Alfred Riedl said that they were the better team but Malaysia won the title.
“It was unlucky ... we missed so many sitters,” said the Austrian.
Malaysain skipper Safiq Rahim said that it was like going to war.
“We came in armoured vehicles. It was a different atmosphere altogether but we prevailed and did not succumb to pressure like we did in the opening game,” he said.
“We should have won but they were pounding at us and we just could not hold on.”
No comments:
Post a Comment