The Malaysia Experiment - Settling Some Beef in Kobe

"覆水盆に帰らず。"
"Spilt water will not return to the tray." - Japanese Idiom

After a good start to the campaign with a comeback win against Saudi Arabia, we have a tough away game awaiting us at Kobe. To be honest, it would have been nice if we swapped our home and away leg with Japan (43rd) as it would be during cherry blossom season in late March. Instead, we're here in early September.

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There are two players on this Japan team to look out for - Takuya Kawamura (DL) and Hideaki Fukaya (DC), both of them playing European football, PSV and SLB respectively. It's strange they didn't call up their potent strike force that includes Yoshinori Mutō (ST), Yūya Ōsako (ST) and the famous ex-Manchester United player - Shinji Kagawa (AMC). As for me, I decided to bring back Iskandar Baseri (DR), moving Muhd Syazwan Ismawi (DL) back to his natural position on the left of defense, thus giving Hassan Mohd Norshaney a break from the limelight. As I've previously mentioned, I might have thrown him into the deep end too soon. Rahim Osman (19 years old) also comes in for the suspended Luqman Hussain (19 years old) on the left flank.

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You wouldn't have believed it if you weren't present. We were awarded a penalty within the first 5 minutes of gameplay! We had a freekick and as Gonzalo Gnanalingam (DM) sailed the ball in, the assistant referee spotted Jun Furuta (MC) shoving Gurusamy Govandar (MC)! Benjamin Ibrahim (MR) stepped up in place of the suspended Hussian (AML), who is our usual penalty taker. Perhaps nerves got the better of him as he shot straight at Tatsunori Shiina (GK)! He missed the penalty! I don't think we could get a better chance of scoring against Japan than this. :(

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The first half ended with both teams heading into the dressing room goalless. It was pretty much the same case in the other matches around Asia, with only 3 out of the 12 teams playing on the night scoring.

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In the second half, Masayoshi Hoshino (MC) injured himself within 10 minutes of coming on; while Tomoyuki Ijima (ST) injured his foot as well. We find ourselves playing against 10 men for the second match in a row, but with all my tactical tweaks, we failed to capitalize. I don't know what to say. They are nonetheless the stronger team, but they were a man down, so I don't think any excuses would make the cut. :/

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Here's how the table looks like after 2 games, with Turkmenistan (95th) sitting atop. We're on third, losing out to Japan on goal difference. It's still early days though.

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The groups for South East Asian Football Championship were also drawn. As you can see, we're the current holders of the Suzuki Cup after overcoming Thailand (134th) 7-3 on overall aggregate (we trashed them 5-1 in the first leg!). I bet they'll be eager to reclaim the trophy. It's a good thing we avoided them in the group stage and saved the potential clash in the later stages of the competition.

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Our Under 19s is also having a tournament in Australia - Asian Under 19 Championship. I'll keep an eye on them and hope that they at least progress from their group.

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Our next international outing will be a doubleheader against Central Asia teams; firstly against the in-form team - Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (36th) after that! I don't know how long can we cling on to that third spot. ><

If you missed out on any of my previous entries,
you can check them out below: