PETALING JAYA: South Korean Kim Pan-gon is set to stay put as Malaysia’s football head coach.
Pan-gon’s future with Harimau Malaya was questioned when his charges lost 1-0 to Bahrain on Saturday in the Asian Cup Group E match in Doha, Qatar. They had been thrashed 0-4 by Jordan earlier.
Malaysia have one more group match against South Korea on Thursday but they are no longer in contention for the last 16.
Despite the defeats, former football coach Datuk M. Karathu (pic) said it would be far-fetched to let Pan-gon go.
In fact, thanks to the Korean, Malaysia are competing in the Asian Cup on merit after 43 years.
“As a coach, I have been following his progress. I see the way the team play, they are coming up well. I do not blame the coach because he has done a good job so far,” said Karathu, whose coaching career had spanned from 1989-2015.
“When the team lose, everybody will blame the coach but they must see what he has done well generally.
“Letting him go will be a bit too much. As a former coach, I’ve nothing against his credibility, he is good.”
Karathu also hailed the boys’ determination in the Bahrain match but said that their intelligence in the game has to be better.
“It was a good match with the way they played but we should have at least had a point.
“In some decisive moments, we should have dealt better,” he said.
“Players must understand that they have 70-80% chances for goals via corners, so focus and decision-making must be good. He (Akhyar Rashid) had the chance to clear it away and let the team reorganise, but that did not happen.”
Akhyar’s failure to clear the ball off a corner saw Ali Madan taking the opportunity to slam the winning goal in injury time.
“Players need to be tactically savvy. He (Akhyar) was good with the ball but he should have done something better.”
Meanwhile, Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin had said in the past that Pan-gon’s target was to take Malaysia to the third round of the World Cup 2026 qualifiers, which would be a first in the nation’s history.
FAM have even extended his contract until 2025, with the World Cup third-round qualification in mind.
The side are well on track to do that as they are currently top of Group D with six points from the first two games. They beat Kyrgyzstan 4-3 and Taiwan 1-0.
In March, they will face Oman twice on March 21 and 26, and if they win both these matches, Malaysia will surely earn a spot in the next stage.
Since taking over in 2022, Pan-gon-led team have recorded 17 wins, two draws and eight defeats and are now ranked 130th in the world.
