National football coach Tan Cheng Hoe saw “more positives than negatives” in Malaysia’s 1-0 defeat to Kyrgyzstan in an A international friendly at the Hang Jebat Stadium in Melaka on Tuesday.
The defeat came in the wake of Malaysia’s 4-1 win over Sri Lanka in Colombo last week. Malaysia is preparing for the AFF Suzuki Cup next month while Kyrgyzstan is preparing for next year’s Asia Cup Finals.
Malaysia went into the match with a crocked list with several vital players kayoed by injuries. Among those injured are Matthew Davies, Shahrel Fikri Fauzi, and Azizan Nordin.
Malaysia is ranked 171 while Kyrgyzstan is ranked 91 – but at the Hang Jebat Stadium, it did not show the vast difference in rankings as the homesters took the game to their opponents.
It was Malaysia’s failure to score from the opportunities, especially in the first half, that made the difference to the match.
And Kyrgyzstan made one golden opportunity to score – which came on 68 minutes when substitute Sagynbaev Bezkhan sent the Malaysian net dancing when blasted a right footed shot off a deflection from defender Irfan Zakaria.
The visitors were reduced to 10 players when Lusupov Mustafa was booked twice in successive for his refusal to leave the pitch on 80 minutes after injuring himself after clattering into Norshahrul Idlan Talaha.
Norshahrul, Mohamadou Sumareh, Zaquan Abdul Radzak, Nik Akif Syahiran, and Akhyar Rashid muffed their chances and Malaysia paid a high price for the misses. – BY RIZAL ABDULLAH
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