KUALA LUMPUR − The national Under-23 (U-23) squad that featured in the 2022 Asean Football Federation (AFF) U-23 Championship in Phnom Penh, Cambodia was a mixture of footballers taken from the pool of 50 players in the age category identified by team’s head coach Brad Maloney throughout 2021.
Football Association of Malaysia technical director Scott O’Donell said due to the timing of the tournament, it was agreed that the team’s objective was to select a number of players, who had never been given the opportunity to play in an international tournament.
“We took into consideration the fact that most of the players from the age category, who have established themselves in the Super League and Premier League teams, had not been released from the respective teams because the championship was outside the FIFA window,” he said in a statement yesterday.
O’Donell said from the squad that advanced to the 2022 AFC U-23 Championship in Uzbekistan in June following their success in the qualifying rounds last October, Maloney selected a number of players from starting line-ups, including Harith Haiqal Adam Afkar, Azrin Afiq Rusmini and Nur Azfar Fikri Azhar.
The pool of 50 players identified, included the cream of the crop, such as Arif Aiman Hanapi, Luqman Hakim Shamsuddin, Mukhairi Ajmal Mahadi, Ramadhan Saifullah, Danial Asri, Sharul Nazeem Zulpakar, Quentin Cheng, Nathaniel Shio Hong Wan, Azri Abdul Ghani and Rahadiazli Rahalim.
O’Donell said those youngsters remain available for selection for the Uzbekistan trip − subject to Maloney’s further discussions with senior squad head coach Kim Pan-Gon, who will be guiding the Harimau Malaya squad to the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers in June.
According to him, from the aforementioned names, Arif, Luqman, Mukhairi, Ramadhan and Akhyar are already full internationals.
In the meantime, in giving his assessment of the team’s elimination from the tournament following two defeats to Laos in the group stage, O’Donell said the team dominated possession in the first match but lacked composure in the final third.
“This is why this tournament is so important to test the players on the international stage and obviously, the Covid-19 situation did not help matters,” he said.
The national U-23 squad lost 0-2 to Laos in their final Group B match in Morodok Techo Stadium last night − in turn missing a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.
It was Laos’ second win over Malaysia in the group stage after picking up three points with their 2-1 victory in the opening match that took place at the Prince Stadium last Friday.
Group B matches only involved Malaysia and Laos after Myanmar and Indonesia withdrew from the championship due to Covid-19 infections in their teams, and only the three group champions with the best group runner-up were set to advance to the semi-finals. – Bernama, February 23, 2022
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