KUALA LUMPUR – Former national referee Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh thought that Malaysia should have been given a free kick and the decision to award a penalty kick to Vietnam was inappropriate in the controversial Group B match of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup 2022 at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi last night.
Subkhiddin opined that match referee Ryuji Sato should have referred to Doan Van Hau’s first foul – he was apparently seen pushing Muhammad Azam Azmi Murad in the 59th minute when the pillar of the Harimau Malaya’s defence wanted to remove the ball from inside the Malaysian penalty area.
“According to the rules, if an incident occurs outside the playing area and the ball is still in play, the referee must stop the game for a moment and restart, either giving a free kick or an indirect free kick, or if an incident occurs in an area near the boundary line of the goal or the edge of the goal line, a penalty kick must be awarded.
“However, the Vietnamese player was seen committing a reckless challenge on the Malaysian player and he (Van Hau) should be blamed first because the ball was still in play... so in my view, the referee should have given a direct free kick to the Malaysian team,” he said when contacted today.
The “heated” situation saw Sato show the red card to Azam in the 62nd minute after the Japanese referee accused the young Terengganu FC player of fouling Van Hau outside the pitch before the hosts were awarded a penalty kick.
Que Ngoc Hai made the most of the opportunity to double the lead after Nguyen Tien Linh had put the team in front in the first half before Vietnam wrapped up a stylish victory with Nguyen Hoang Duc’s finish nearing full time.
In the meantime, Subkhiddin, who is also a Fifa technical instructor, said the red card to Azam should have been given when he was seen retaliating after being pushed down by Van Hau earlier.
“An act of retaliation or reaction can be subject to a red card, but the match should have been restarted based on the home player’s first offence,” he said.
Meanwhile, Subkhiddin hoped that the squad coached by Kim Pan-gon will quickly forget the black episode in Hanoi and rise up again against Singapore in their last Group B match at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on January 3, in their quest to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament labelled “the Asean World Cup”.
He said the players do not need to be sad about their loss to the Golden Star Warriors yesterday and he wanted to see them continue to play tactically guided by the South Korean manager in the “Causeway Derby” after this.
The defeat saw Malaysia fail to end their winless drought against Vietnam since 2014 – losing seven times and drawing once, while last night’s success saw Vietnam top Group B with six points from two games.
Malaysia, who were the champions in 2010, have played three games and are in second place with six points, followed by Singapore, who have just played two games, in third place (six points) while Myanmar and Laos are at the bottom after failing to collect any points. – Bernama, December 28, 2022
