We’re in the Finals

Malaysia secure spot in AFC Under-19 championship next year

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia have qualified for the AFC Under-19 Championship Finals in Indonesia next October.

The national Under-19 team, who finished second in Group F, qualified as the fifth best runners-up from 10 groups in the qualifying rounds.

Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and China qualified as group winners while Malaysia joined Iraq, Thailand, North Korea and Taiwan as the best five runners-up.

Coach Bojan Hodak said that Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim would arrange for the team to go on a training-cum-playing stint in Europe in preparation for the Finals.

“In my last meeting with the president, he talked about stints in Europe for matches. We plan to play against some Middle East teams who have qualified,” said the 46-year-old coach yesterday.

Hodak’s boys finished second with nine points behind Group F winners South Korea (12 points). Indonesia were third with six points while Timor Leste and Brunei ended with a point each.

Malaysia started their campaign with a 3-1 win over Timor Leste on Oct 31, before edging Brunei 1-0 last Saturday and whipping Indonesia 4-1 on Monday. Their winning streak ended with a 3-0 loss to South Korea on Wednesday.

The Croatian coach said that the team “have improved a lot but there's still plenty of room for improvement”.

“Against South Korea, you could see how they reacted against one of the best teams in their age group. We need more of this type of matches in the future,” said Hodak.

“South Korea were technically and tactically better than us. These are the aspects that we need to improve on. The problem is development ... their development is at higher level but I think having tougher matches can help us.”