All set: The national team going through their paces ahead of today’s friendly against Papua New Guinea. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: National football head coach Kim Pan-gon is set to assume the ‘tinkerman’ role in the friendly match against Papua New Guinea today.
Expect the Korean to change and swap and unveil a new line-up in the game at the Sultan Mizan Stadium in Gong Badak, Terengganu.
One thing is for sure, the heavy tinkering is likely to surprise Papua New Guinea’s coach Harrison Kamake.
Pan-gon said all the players had the potential to be starters based on their commitment in training after their 4-1 win against Solomon Islands last week.
“All our players are fit. We have decided to change the line-up to see if our players will remain competitive.
“I think it’s a good stage to experiment and see if this squad can compete against Papua at a high level,” said Pan-gon.
“Every single player has to compete with each other to win the first eleven spot. I love this kind of competitive environment.
“We now have two players in each area, but I hope to have three in the future.
“No one should be comfortable. They must challenge each other. That is the only way to make our team competitive.
“We also need to work on some small technical details to ensure we play better than the last game.”
Pan-gon admitted that the world No.159 Papua are no mincemeat as they had held Singapore 2-2 in the previous friendly match and do come with the history of beating Malaysia 2-0 in 2016.
“That’s history, but it’s good to be aware of that. We saw their match against Singapore. Based on that, I can say that their standard is similar to Solomon Islands.
“I want to continue with our winning record at home, this is our fortress!
“We created a lot of chances in the last game and we have to continue doing that. We have to be proactive but also push our opponents to make mistakes.”
Meanwhile, Kamake is looking forward to clinching something special despite the country not having their domestic competition yet this year.
“We hope to give a good game against Malaysia. The boys are geared up to do something special. Every one has their task, and I hope they will do it,” said Kamake.
“We have a lot of young players now. It would be good for them to face a side like Malaysia and see where they stand.”
