Malaysia Under-22 head coach Frank Bernhardt has revealed that the Project SEA Games squad will take part in friendly matches against Japanese League clubs from June 10 to 28.
The trip is purposed to give a chance to the players who did not receive playing time during the recent Nations Cup tournament at the Hang Jebat Stadium in Malacca. The German wants to evaluate all 27 players before finalizing preparations for the SEA Games next year.
The national team will go up against two teams from the second division of the Japanese League and one team from the first division. They will also focus on improving themselves as a team after going down 2-1 at the hands of Thailand in the Nations Cup final on Sunday.
“We trained for less than two weeks before the Nations Cup tournament and my players still managed to put up a good performance,” Frank Bernhardt said as quoted by Berita Harian.
“We conceded an early goal against Thailand, which hampered our confidence from the start.
Assistant coach Aminuddin Hussin wants his boys to fully focus on the trip to Japan.
“Adam Nor Azlin (Selangor) and Shahrul Hakim (Kelantan U-21) will not be joining us because of injuries but they will be replaced by two players who recovered from injury.
The national Under-22 team will leave for Japan today for a training camp in Tokyo.
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