Malaysia’s Dion Cools vying for the ball with Jordan’s Yazan Al Naimat during their Group E match. — AP/Reuters
PETALING JAYA: National coach Kim Pan-gon has no regrets going for open play in their 0-4 defeat to world No. 87th ranked Jordan in their opening Group E match in the Asian Cup Finals in Doha, Qatar.
Jordan were deemed the least strongest of Malaysia’s three Group E opponents - but they exposed the big gap in standards between Malaysia and the Middle East teams at the Al Janoub Stadium on Monday.
Malaysia, ranked lowest in Group E at 130th, were already in big trouble as Jordan jumped to a 2-0 lead after just 20 minutes, leading to suggestions whether Pan-gon could have saved the national team from further humiliation if he opted for a defensive approach.
Interception: Malaysia’s Stuart Wilkin jumps to stop a shot by Jordan’s Mousa Altamari.
However, the South Korean coach said the ‘’park the bus’’ approach will not help in the development of the team that have actually started to show improvement over the past two years by adopting a high intensity game pattern.
“We can play negative (during the action with Jordan) ... we can play more defensively by not putting pressure at the top but instead wait below.
“But it doesn’t help the future of the team. So we keep what the team have been doing for the past two years, and that’s what we keep,” he said.
Pan-gon is expected to maintain the same style of play when they next take on Bahrain in the decisive second group match at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium this Saturday.
Bahrain, ranked 86th in the world, are also looking for their first win after going down 1-3 to South Korea.
“For me it (defeat to Jordan) is a useful lesson for us, where it is good for preparing for the World Cup Qualifier later.
“It’s a useful lesson and we’ll fix the weaknesses for the second action later.”
The national team must win the second match against Bahrain to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the knockout stage (last 16).
Pan-gon added that he wants his players to perform like in the second half against Jordan which was a much better show than in the first half.
“The action in the second half, even though we conceded a goal, was a better performance and that’s how we played.
“Jordan’s first half started perfectly but after that we went back to our original form.
“We will correct our mistakes and perform better in the next game,” he said.
After Bahrain, the national team will have their toughest test against world No. 23 South Korea led by Tottenham star Son Heung-min on Jan 25.
