PETALING JAYA: With the Asian Cup challenge done and dusted, national football coach Kim Pan-gon (pic) now shifts his attention to the World Cup 2026-Asian Cup 2027 qualifying campaign.
And the South Korean mastermind wants to ensure his charges get another two wins in the second-round qualifiers to get to the third round. If that happens, it would be historic as Malaysia have never gone to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers.
What’s even better is that they would qualify for the Asian Cup on merit for the second time in a row.
There’s only one snag though.
Pan-gon said it would be a challenge, especially in terms of match fitness as the Super League would only resume in May, whereas the qualifiers will resume in March.
The Harimau Malaya will take on Oman twice on March 21 and 26 in Group D.
“For us, it is the World Cup qualification in March and June. We will have some hurdles we have to go through. It will be tough because the league starts only in May,” he said.
“Getting to the third round would be historical for Malaysia. Everyone in the Malaysian football ecosystem needs to support us to prepare for the qualifiers.”
Malaysia are top of Group D with six points after beating Kyrgyzstan 4-3 and Taiwan 1-0 in November last year.
In the ongoing Asian Cup, Malaysia were booted out of the group stage after collecting one point to finish bottom of Group E.
They lost to Bahrain (0-1) and Jordan (0-4) but ended the campaign with some pride by holding South Korea, Pan-gon’s birth nation, 3-3.
“From this tournament, we gained a lot. I spoke to the players because this is the first time they are playing on this stage. For some, it’s the first time facing this kind of opponents. We must feel and taste this kind of wonderful tournament,” said Pan-gon.
“We must dream to play on this stage again. We must try to do it consistently. We need to spend time, we need to support the players.
“Getting to the latter stages will need a lot of effort and planning. Even South Korea took a while to get to that stage.”
Pan-gon is confident that South Korea will get to the Asian Cup final despite their struggles in the group stage, where they finished second with five points behind Bahrain, who topped the group with six.
“Sometimes big teams struggle against smaller teams. But I believe this Korean team will go all the way to the final.”
