Rajagobal's boys hold heads high in defeat

Malaysia’s Khyril Muhymeen (left) tries to go past an Iran player in their last-16 match at Yuexiy Stadium yesterday. Iran won 3-1.

MALAYSIA may have exited the Asian Games football tournament in the second round but K. Rajagobal's side did so having earned the respect of rival coaches in Guangzhou. The 3-1 defeat to Iran at the Yuexiu Stadium yesterday may have been easily predicted but the youthful and severely weakened Under-23 side could not be faulted for effort.

Injuries and suspensions meant Rajagobal only had 15 outfield players to choose from and six of those who started were 21 or younger.

By the time the match ended, there were nine players on the field who came from that age group with skipper Norshahrul Idlan Talaha and left-back Asraruddin Putra Omar the odd ones out.
After fending off Iran in the first half, the goals flew in as the inexperienced nature of the side began to tell but Iran coach Gholamhossein Peyravani admitted he had reason to be concerned.

"The Malaysian team are a good team who play one-touch football impressively. They tried not to let in a goal and made life very difficult for us in the first half.

"But once we scored, it became easier. The Malaysian team are much improved from several years ago and we were lucky we saw this Malaysian team in a competition in Vietnam earlier and learned a few things," said Peyravani through a translator.

While Iran go on to face Oman in the quarter-finals, Rajagobal was left to reflect on what might have been had Norhafiz Zamani Misbah, Ahmad Fakri Saarani (both injured), Safiq Rahim, S. Kunanlan and Mahalli Jasuli (suspended) been available.

"Certainly, we believe we could have gone on to the quarter-finals if we had these players and those six we left at home.

"It's sad to think what might have been because we could have made history again after so long.

"We gave away simple goals, there was nothing spectacular about them but these things happen with young players.

"I hope the Malaysian public understand what we went through and that these players tried their very best in the circumstances," said Rajagobal, who will now check on the extent of the injury problems before the AFF Suzuki Cup next month.

Malaysia suffered an early blow yesterday after losing S. Chanthuru to a hamstring injury with barely 20 minutes gone before Iran broke the Malaysian resistance through Karim Ansari in the 53rd minute with a clear run on goal.

Goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat, outstanding throughout the tournament, made a rare error six minutes later when he inadvertently punched a corner kick into his own goal under pressure from Seyed Hosseini.

Amir Sharafi rammed in a loose ball in the 67th minute for 3-0 before Norshahrul won and scored a penalty four minutes from full-time for his second goal of the competition.

RESULTS: Iran 3 Malaysia 1, Oman 3 Hong Kong 0, Qatar 0 Uzbekistan 1 (AET), China 0 South Korea 3.

TODAY: Japan v India, N. Korea v Vietnam, Turkmenistan v Thailand, UAE v Kuwait.


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