Bang on target: Malaysia’s Lee Tuck (centre) celebrating with teammates after scoring.
PETALING JAYA: It has been a dream start for Lee Tuck as a Harimau Malaya player at a late age of 34 but the naturalised striker has been cherishing every minute of it.
Tuck, who became a naturalised Malaysian in September, made his debut for Harimau Malaya on Dec 9 and scored a goal in a 4-0 win against Cambodia.
National coach Kim Pan-gon gave the Pahang hitman another opportunity to see action against Maldives at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium in Cheras on Wednesday where he scored in the 88th minute in a 3-0 win.
Tuck was delighted to have been able to gel well with the his teammates and more importantly scored in both his starts, giving himself a chance to become a regular feature under Pan-gon during the AFF Cup.
Malaysia begin their Group B match against Myanmar in the AFF Cup away match on Dec 21.
“It is a dream come true for me to score two goals in my first two matches for Harimau Malaya. I’m not a gamechanger but I want to make an immediate impact when fielded by the coach,” said Tuck.
“I want to use this positive start to further boost my international career. Our focus now is to win the AFF Cup.
“It will be a tough challenge and we need to take one match at a time and stick with the tactics and planning of the coaches to achieve the result.
“We are not a team of star players but we work together as a unit. We are solid in different positions.”
It will be a challenge to make the first eleven for Tuck as he has to compete with regulars like Safawi Rasid, Darren Lok, Mohd Faisal Halim, Mohd Haqimi Azim Rosli, Sergio Aguero and Ramadhan Saifullah but the veteran striker has been motivated by his goalscoring abilities despite coming in as a substitute.
Besides Myanmar, Harimau Malaya have 2018 champions Vietnam, Laos and Singapore for company in Group B.
