THE Thai wall is a formidable one. But walls can fall and the Malaysian sepaktakraw team are hoping that everything will fall into place when they take on Thailand in the men’s regu final.
After beating the Philippines 21-15, 21-11 in 57 minutes, coach Ahmad Jais Baharun said his boys will have a gargantuan task against the sepaktakraw kings at the JSC Gymnasium today.
But Jais wants the regu of Mohamad Azlan Alias, Amirul Zazwan Amir and Mohammad Syahir Mohd Rosdi to fix some elements if they want to win a surprise gold.
After all, they had done so in the last Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang when they beat Indonesia for the men’s regu gold.
“The game against Thailand is a huge challenge. Thailand are much more consistent in tekong attack and also defensively strong,” he said.
“We have to be mindful of these two things if we want to challenge the Thais.
“Everybody wants success. Both Malaysia and Thailand wanting to win. I have to be realistic. However, we have to be better in some elements if we are to succeed.
The match tomorrow will be important for us. It’s not impossible to win.
Against the Philippines, the Malaysians had some lapses in the first set, and needed 57 minutes to win.
Thailand, on the other hand, took just 28 minutes to demolish Vietnam 21-5, 21-7 in the other semi-final.
“We got into rhythm quite late in the first set. That put us under pressure. We didn’t attack consistently and were loose defensively.
“Against Thailand, what we did in the first set must not happen if we want to mount a strong challenge.”
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