KUALA LUMPUR – Harimau Malaya are set to face familiar foes in friendly matches – Turkmenistan on March 23 and Hong Kong on March 28 at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Iskandar Puteri, Johor.
National team head coach Kim Pan-gon said both world number 135 Turkmenistan and Hong Kong, ranked 146, are looking forward to taking revenge on his charges after losing in previous matches.
Malaysia, ranked 145, defeated Hong Kong 2-0 in a friendly and Turkmenistan 3-1 in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, both at Bukit Jalil National Stadium in June.
“Turkmenistan are a good team, I heard they’re very upset to lose against us. They want to prove themselves by challenging us again, so welcome. Same goes for Hong Kong, who couldn’t bring their best players from China (then) because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This time they will bring their best team. This will be good for us, because both teams, in terms of (the) mental (front), want to challenge us,” he told a press conference at Wisma FAM here today.
Pan-gon said the coaching team wanted Malaysia to play against a strong side and an average team in order to give the team the best competitive exposure, besides maintaining their rankings in Asia’s Top 25 to avoid the first round of the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers, expected to be played in October.
The Top 25 teams in the March rankings will advance straight to the group stage in the second round of the joint qualifiers beginning November.
As Malaysia (1066.6 points) only has a small margin lead of 4.21 points over Hong Kong in the FIFA rankings, Pan-gon said they couldn’t be too passionate to play big teams and lose points.
Meanwhile, the South Korean coach is positive that playing at Johor Darul Ta’zim’s (JDT) Sultan Ibrahim Stadium, the Zeon Zoysia pitch, which is equal to the World Cup venues in Qatar, would help Harimau Malaya face Asia’s powerhouses in the 2023 Asian Cup early next year.
“Playing in the cow-grass (at Bukit Jalil) helped us as our opponents struggled sometimes, but it was also difficult when we wanted to play fast games. It is timely to play in the JDT stadium, which has a beautiful pitch, to prepare for the World Cup stadiums in Qatar,” he added.
Asked about the selection of players for the upcoming training camps, after having different sets of players for the Asian Cup qualifiers last year and the recent AFF Cup, Pan-gon said he made a strategic call based on their performance.
“No players have guaranteed spots in the Asian Cup team. They have to fight each other and prove themselves to be in the squad during each call up,” he said. – Bernama, February 20, 2023
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