National team defender Mohd Aidil Zafuan Abd Radzak is very much confident that the “dark era” surrounding the Malayan Tigers will come to an end soon enough.
Problems on and off field was added with the history making 0-10 loss to United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2018 World Cup/2019 Asian Cup qualifying rounds. At the same time, fan trouble in the form of Ultras Malaya has also placed the national side in an awkward situation.
On top of that, the Malayan Tigers lost their coach Dollah Salleh, who resigned after the humiliating defeat, forcing coach Ong Kim Swee to take over temporarily. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, the announcement made by FIFA yesterday saw Malaysia stoop to their lowest ever ranking, at a poor 171th place.
Despite all this, Aidil has stated that a team’s success depends on everyone involved, and no one individual can be blamed.
“Ong Kim Swee has been given the job to guide the team for now, and players will have to follow his instructions. As a player, that will be my job. We have to prove our worth. The coach can’t be blamed if the players fail to perform.”
Kim Swee has been appointed the interim coach by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and are still in the lookout for a suitable candidate to permanently take over as the national team head coach.
28 year-old Aidil, who is playing club football for Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), was included in the national team after a year sidelined, for the friendly match against Laos on 8th October and Group A qualifying match against Timor Leste on 13th October.
WHAT DO WE THINK?
Certainly it can’t get any worse than this. It is reasonable that Aidil sees the bright light at the end of the tunnel after a series of woeful performances. Under Kim Swee, they finally have that bit of stability that was evident in the match against Saudi Arabia. If Kim Swee can get the best out of his players against Laos and in the crucial match facing Timor Leste, there is surely good times to look forward ahead, may even consolidate his position as the permanent head coach.
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