Haqimi Azim Rosli (in yellow) on his way to scoring the goal against Kuwait. - Photo by FAM
PETALING JAYA: “We are truly sorry.”
Those were the words uttered by coach Juan Torres Garrido after his boys failed to collect any points and scored only one goal in their group D outing in the AFC Under-23 Asian Cup.
In three matches, Malaysia lost to Uzbekistan (0-2) on April 17, Vietnam (0-2) on April 20 and Kuwait (1-2) on April 23.
“We cannot be positive about our tournament. Our expectations were different. In terms of performance, my analysis is different and the result is different,” said the Spaniard.
“I want to apologise to the fans because we didn’t reach the level that we wanted in Qatar.”
Before the tournament, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) placed a quarter-final target for the Harimau Muda but they failed to meet the target and dreams of the Olympics were dashed in the early stages.
Only the top three teams in the tournament will qualify for the Olympics in Paris this year.
Though Malaysia did a bit better against Kuwait, it wasn’t good enough and even a late salvo did not soothe their battered pride.
Striker Haqimi Azim Rosli scored the only goal for Malaysia in the 63rd minute. Kuwait’s goals were scored by Salman Al-Awadhi (45th) and Talal Al-Qaisi (60th).
“It is difficult to define this game. So many things happened. It’s difficult to control some of the situations.
“We had some goalscoring chances but didn’t manage them well. We put ourselves in a tough spot. We gave everything for an equaliser but we didn’t do it.
“We had the chance to be more aggressive but our players were already exhausted.
“We tried to plan accordingly in half-time and they performed to what we wanted but they lacked energy in the final part to finish the work.”
As for improvements, Garrido said the team will have work to do for future tournaments.
“Every game we created chances before the opponents, so we need to work on our composure. We need to work on the simple things as well. We conceded a lot of set pieces, which changed the games completely.”
Meanwhile, FAM technical director Scott O’Donell attributed their failure to a lack of match fitness.
“If we look at the statistics, not many players in this squad had any playing time with their clubs in last season’s Super League campaign ... only four of them did.
“Goalkeeper Sikh Izhan Nazrel played for 2,250 minutes with Negri Sembilan; Mukhairi Ajmal Mahadi had 1,684 minutes with Selangor; T. Saravanan 1,252 minutes with Kuala Lumpur City; and Safwan Mazlan 1,063 minutes with Terengganu,” he said in a statement shared by FAM yesterday.
As for the long transition time of the (M-League), he said the players had to wait a long time for the 2024-2025 season to start on May 10, thus affecting their fitness levels ahead of the Under-23 Asian Cup.
