Monday 13 October 2008

Does our National Team think Merdeka tournament is a weak tournament?

The 40th Merdeka tournament commences from Oct 15-25 and the teams competing in the tournament won’t make any Tom, Dick or Harry jump for joy in terms of team composition other than Malaysia.

READ: Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

But let’s be fair, this tournament will be interesting and a test of sorts. Why? If Malaysia can win this tournament, I will be happy as rankings never tell the true story.

Apparently, Malaysia is ranked higher than Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – according to FIFA rankings. But the last I recall, Vietnam are a handful, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, emm, don’t expect an avalanche of goals from us when we play them.

So, good chance for Malaysia to pacify the long suffering Malaysian loving EPL fans. I hope our coach don’t take it easy and as all our past coaches say, use this tournament, that tournament as preparation for a bigger tournament. When the bigger tournament comes, they stumble and give another round of excuses like they were up against more stronger and well prepared teams.

Based on my own research, Mozambique has players playing in the Greek, Hungarian and Swiss League while Sierra Leone has a mix of journeymen plying their trade around Europe mainly in the lower leagues so if the Malaysian national team thinks this tournament will be a walk in the park, well, they are gravely mistaken.

We hope they will play as well as trying to look good in their Nike outfits together with their gel-ed up punk-type hair, like the Euro football stars around the world. Thank God, the team is mainly made up of Muslims, hence, we won’t see new tattoos on their arms and legs as it is prohibited in their religion.

I mean, we don’t want to say the boots has more talent than the player right? We need more than a good performance to regain our faith in the national team and the only way forward is by winning this tournament. Ignore that once again, we are preparing fro AFF Cup in December. When come AFF, we lose, what ‘s the excuse? Thailand were better prepared? Oh, come on guys!

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