No pressure for Project 2016 squad in Sultan of Johor Cup

KUALA LUMPUR: Play your best and finish as high as you can.

That’s all that is expected of the Project 2016 squad in the fourth edition of the Sultan of Johor Cup, which will be held at the Taman Daya Stadium in Johor Baru from Oct 12-19.

This is despite the team having the services of two national players – forward Mohd Shahril Saabah and midfielder Meor Mohd Azuan Hassan (both are in Incheon for the Asian Games).

Malaysia finished as runners-up last year in the six-nation Under-21 tournament, losing 3-0 to India in the final.

The other teams competing this year are India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

Team manager Mirnawan Nawawi said that they have not set any targets for the Project squad because “the team lacks exposure”.

“The Sultan of Johor Cup will be the first tournament for the Project 2016 squad since they began training early this year,” said Mirnawan.

“They played a few friendlies against the national senior team. They then went on a playing tour of Perth last month and took in four matches against the Under-21 Western Australian Institute of Sports (WAIS).”

The Project squad won one match against WAIS (2-0) and drew the other three (1-1, 3-3, 2-2).

“We are also not sure of the actual strength of the other five teams featuring in the tournament. However, we definitely want them to finish as high as possible,” said Mirnawan.

The Project squad, under interim national coach S. Arulselvaraj, will open their campaign against Australia on Oct 12. Their other matches are against New Zealand (Oct 13), Britain (Oct 15), India (Oct 16) and Pakistan (Oct 18).

The final and placing matches will be played on Oct 19.

The final squad of 18 players will be named after a friendly against Britain on Oct 8.

Malaysia won the inaugural tournament in 2011 but finished last in 2012.