Bojan has work cut out with national youth team

PETALING JAYA: Croatian Bojan Hodak is racing against time as he has just two years to turn around Malaysia’s fortunes in youth football.

The former Johor Darul Ta’zim and Kelantan coach said the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) want to see immediate progress in age-group competitions.

Hodak, however, said the present batch of players lack international exposure to bring about the desired results.

“In Europe 95% of the national players have represented their countries at youth levels. However, the percentage is very much lower in Malaysia,” said Bojan, who was appointed the national Under-19 coach last month.

His first task is to guide Malaysia to qualify for the semi-finals of the Asean Football Federation’s (AFF) Under-19 Championship in Yangon, Myanmar.

Malaysia begin their campaign in Group A against Laos at the Aung San Stadium in Yangon today. Malaysia’s other matches are against Singapore (Wednesday), Timor Leste (Friday), Cambodia (Sept 9) and Thailand (Sept 11).

Group B consists of Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Myanmar.

“I want to win every game and every tournament but I don’t want to put pressure on the boys.

“We will use this game as preparation for our next tournament which is the AFC Under-19 qualifications.”

Favourites Thailand and Timor Leste will pose a serious threat to Malaysia’s bid to qualify for the semi-finals.

Last year, the Malaysian team under German Frank Bernhardt failed to reach the semi-finals after shock losses to Timor Leste (3-2) and hosts Vietnam (3-1).

Malaysia only managed to beat the Philippines (5-0) and Singapore (2-1).

Australia emerged champions when they thrashed Thailand 5-1 in the final in Hanoi last year.