No shame in U-22 side’s failure to make finals — Peter de Roo

KUALA LUMPUR: The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) are proud of the national Under-22 side’s overall performance despite their failure to qualify for the 2020 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-23 Championship in Bangkok, Thailand.

FAM technical director Peter de Roo said in a statement today commended the gutsy performance shown by the players in the three Group J qualifiers, especially in Tuesday’s frustrating 2-2 draw with one of Asia’s giants, China, who are coached by master tactician Guus Hiddink.

“In reality, our performances, especially against China, were good. We cannot ask for more and should be proud of the way the players carried themselves. It is a shame that it wasn’t rewarded with a spot at next year’s Finals because that would have been another great opportunity for our boys to get exposure and challenge the best.

“Even Hiddink told me after the game that we deserved to be there. He was impressed by our performance,” he said.

Malaysia, under coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee, completed the qualifiers as group runners-up with wins over the Philippines (30) and Laos (1-0) to be level on seven points with China, who topped the group on better goal difference.

However, Malaysia’s dream of making the Finals next year went up in smoke when they could only finish seventh out of all the secondplaced teams in the qualifiers. Only the top four runners-up earned the right to join the 11 group winners in the Finals, with Thailand qualifying automatically as hosts.

Malaysia’s failure to make the AFC Under-23 Finals also ended their only chance to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (The Finals will serve as the first stage of the AFC qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics.)

De Roo also took critics of the team and FAM to task, describing them as “people who do not know about football and do not follow the team’s progress in the campaign”.

He said they should, instead, stand behind the team as they prepare for the Manila SEA Games in the Philippines at the end of this year.

“Although the mission to qualify for the 2020 Olympics is in the FAM Roadmap (F:30), we cannot assume that the F:30 has failed based on the progress made by the team as well as the fact that it is a long-term roadmap for 2019 to 2030,” he said. - Bernama