PETALING JAYA: Raymond Gunemba of Papua New Guinea has aged but he remembers clearly the celebration back at home when they defeated Malaysia in a football match seven years ago.
Malaysia suffered the ignominy of being beaten by the tiny nation 0-2 at Port Moresby.
It sent shockwaves as the home side were only ranked 193rd in the world at the time while Malaysia were 20 rungs higher than them in the FIFA ranking.
Gunemba played in that game and this time, the 37-year-old striker will captain his nation in an international friendly at the Sultan Mizan Stadium in Gong Badak, Terengganu today.
Their world ranking has now improved to 159th while Malaysia are lying at the 138th spot.
Gunemba said Harimau Malaya were a different team now and had shown improvement since that last meeting.
“I played in that 2-0 win against Malaysia. I think Malaysia have moved up a lot from that previous team,” said Gunemba, who plays for Lae City Dwellers.
“We watched their game against the Solomon Islands. They have lots of quality players. We are prepared for a bigger challenge. It will be a tough game tomorrow (today).”
Gunemba is coming into the game with some confidence after scoring a goal in their 2-2 draw against Singapore last week.
He wants to keep the groove going and is hopeful for another upset in Terengganu.
“The players are ready and fit. Everyone is excited. We are looking forward to it,” said Gunemba.
“The draw against Singapore has given us the confidence and we are ready for the next challenge. We have a mixture of senior and young players. We had only recently selected the team after our previous tournament.
“We believe we have the quality. Most of us are physically smaller than the Malaysians but we have the heart, pace and months of hard work to take them down.”
