Chun Yong confident of his boys
AFTER narrowly missing out on Sea Games gold last month, national futsal coach Chiew Chun Yong is optimistic of a good showing at the AFF Championship in Ho Chi Minh City next month.
Chun Yong has called up 15 of the 16 players who featured at the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games where Malaysia won silver behind champions Thailand.
The national team will travel to Doha to play Qatar in a series of friendly matches on Oct 12-17 in preparation for the AFF tournament on Oct 24-Nov 3 where Malaysia are drawn with Thailand, Laos and Timor Leste.
Chun Yong said he expects his team to attempt to improve on their performances at the Sea Games where a 4-3 defeat to Thailand forced Malaysia into the runners-up spot.
“No doubt there was an improvement in the team’s performances at the Sea Games but I had expected them to do better,” Chun Yong told Timesport yesterday.
“We were so close to the gold medal and definitely there is room for improvement. We can do so much better and I hope we can improve tournament-bytournament.”
The absence of a national league has been the main obstacle in holding back the national team.
“I don’t have an avenue to select players based on performances which is why I’m relying on the same players I called up for the Sea Games,” said Chun Yong, who has been conducting centralised training for the past one week in Shah Alam.
Malaysia finished runners-up three times in the AFF Championship with the last being 2010.
At the 2016 edition, Malaysia came in third after going down 53 to Thailand in the semi-finals in Bangkok, having squandered a three-goal lead.
“We are closing the gap all the time and the target for the AFF tournament is to reach the semifinals and we will how it goes from there,” added Chun Yong.