No you don’t: Malaysia’s Darren Lok (right) vying for the ball with Maldives’ Ahmed Numaan— MUHAMAD SHAHRIL ROSLI/The Star
PETALING JAYA: He had planned to name his final line-up after the friendly against Maldives at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium in Cheras.
But national head coach Kim Pan-gon was left scratching his head after below-par performances by his boys in their 3-0 win against a team ranked 154th in the world.
The goals were scored by Darren Lok in the 24th minute, Mohd Faisal Halim (64) and naturalised striker Lee Tuck (88) but it was not a show to shout about.
Harimau Malaya played better in their 4-0 win against Cambodia in their first International Tier 1 friendly match.
Pan-gon admitted that it was hard to make up his mind on his 23-member squad for the AFF Mitsubishi Cup next week. He has 28 players in his training camp now.
“The ones I expected to play well did not live up to expectations while the ones that I least expected did well (against Maldives),” said the Korean during the post-match press conference.
“I cannot judge a player based on a single game. These players have shown high standards through the full season.
“We have to analyse them strategically and tactically.”
National head coach Kim Pan-gon.
Malaysia will begin their AFF Cup Group B campaign against Myanmar in Yangon on Dec 21, followed by Laos at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil (Dec 24), Vietnam in Hanoi (Dec 27) and Singapore again at the National Stadium (Jan 3).
Overall though, Pan-gon was happy with the boys’ performances.
“I can see their hunger, team spirit and commitment. They fought hard and the team are very serious on the mission at hand,” said Pan-gon.
“What I can say is, so far we are doing well. We want to give the fans a good performance in every game.
“Every single day, the team work very hard, so we want the fans on our side.”
Pan-gon promised to iron out any shortcoming with a week to go to the AFF Cup.
“The first half was not smooth, we struggled to attack but the players showed improvement in the second half,” said Pan-gon.
“Our football is physically demanding and sometimes the players need to be more accurate.
“They shouldn’t lose possession too early.
“We will analyse the game and figure out what needs to be fixed,” he added.
