KUALA LUMPUR – The men’s national football team will play friendly matches against Cambodia and Maldives as warm-up ahead of their 2022 Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup campaign starting December 21.
Harimau Malaya will face Cambodia on December 9 at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium, while they take on Maldives on December 14 at the Kuala Lumpur Stadium in Cheras.
Head coach Kim Pan-gon said after discussing with other teams and evaluating internally from various aspects, the decision was finally made to accept invitations from Cambodia and Maldives’ national teams for the two Tier 1 international matches.
“Although both teams are ranked lower than the Harimau Malaya squad who is currently ranked 146th in the world with Cambodia in 177th and Maldives in 154th, the selection was based on the team’s fixtures during the 2022 AFF Cup campaign,” he said in a statement.
The national team begin their AFF Cup Group B campaign in an away match against Myanmar (ranked 158th) on December 21, before taking on Laos (ranked 187th) on December 24 at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium.
They then face Vietnam (ranked 96th) in an away match on December 27, followed by their final group stage match against Singapore (ranked 160th) on January 3.
“Cambodia is one of the participating teams in Group A and their selection for the friendly match is suitable in our efforts to identify improvements in the team after the centralised training camp.
“We have played matches against Thailand and Philippines this year and we believe Cambodia will be good for our preparation,” he said.
Harimau Malaya defeated Philippines 2-0 in March during the FAS Tri-Nations Series, while they won in penalties against Thailand in September at the King’s Cup.
Even though Maldives is not from South-East Asia, they are two-time champions of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Cup, winning in 2008 and 2018 – as well as having similar game patterns to other South-East Asian teams.
“Additionally, Maldives won both their matches during the September FIFA Days and are one of the more recent teams to play Laos, a team we will face in the tournament.
“It is certain that both warm up matches will be suitable for Harimau Malaya’s preparation especially ahead of two early AFF Cup matches against Myanmar and Laos, before going up against Vietnam and Singapore,” said Pan-gon.
Recently, Football Association of Malaysia announced that the Bukit Jalil National Stadium will be the official venue for Harimau Malaya’s AFF Cup campaign. – The Vibes, October 31, 2022.
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