Raja slams ref, players

Malaysia’s Safiq Rahim walks off after being shown the red card by the referee in the match against China at the Tianhe Stadium yesterday. China won 3-0.

MALAYSIA had three players sent off in an indisciplined 3-0 defeat to China but still advanced to the Asian Games football second round for the first time since 1978. Third place in Group A was enough to set up a meeting with Iran in the last-16 tomorrow but the Under-23 team could well be short of players for that match due to suspensions and injuries.

K. Rajagobal's side shot themselves in the foot early on with the successive dismissals of Mahalli Jasuli and Safiq Rahim, having been on the back foot the entire game.

S. Kunanlan was also red carded late in the game for a second caution after conceding a penalty while five other players were booked.
Right-back Mahalli, who picked up a caution as early as the second minute, was shown a second yellow card by Williams for petulantly kicking the ball away

Captain Safiq led the protests and was given a straight red to everyone's disbelief despite not appearing to raise his voice

That left Malaysia to battle on with nine men with Norshahrul Idlan Talaha taking over the skipper's duties and Amar Rohidan filling in at full-back.

Rajagobal was livid with Australian referee Ben Williams performance, who was too easily taken in by the China players theatrics, but also had strong words for his own team.

"I will have a word with Mahalli, he should not have done that, but I think the referee should at least have warned Safiq first.

"This was not a must-win game and the referee ought to have known that. Now I have to see how many players I have left for the next match.

"While I don't want to defend my players' actions, we tried as hard as we could to hang in there. Even if we had 10 men, I was confident we can match China," said Rajagobal.

Up until the sendings off, goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat kept Malaysia in the game with two early saves to deny China the lead.

China though were unable to make use of their numerical advantage and trooped off at half-time to jeers as the Malaysian defence led by a stellar Muslim Ahmad held off the hosts.

After two more splendid saves by Khairul early in the second half, Malaysia's resistance broke in the 62nd minute when Li Jianbin looped in a header off a free-kick into the far corner.

Four minutes later it was 2-0 as an air-kick by Norshahrul allowed Zhao Honglue's weak free-kick to trickle into goal.

Malaysia's misery was complete when Zhang Linpeng converted a penalty in the 83rd minute after a China took a dive to fool Williams, who sent Kunanlan to an early bath.


Read more: Raja slams ref, players http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/ko3eioprl_kr/Article#ixzz15FEKgaPH