Be brave and play with pride, Cheng Hoe tells rookies

SUBANG: Don’t have an inferiority complex. This is what national coach Tan Cheng Hoe told the newcomers who were called up for centralised training yesterday.

Cheng Hoe said the players only have to focus on giving their best to make the starting line-up.

The 50-year-old coach has calledup two naturalised players from Johor Darul Tazim (JDT) – Natxo Insa and LaVere Corbin-Ong.

Cheng Hoe also included Kedah’s Ariff Farhan Md Isa and Sabah skip- per Rawilson Batuil. Five Under-23 players – Haziq Nadzli, Akhyar Rashid, Syazwan Andik Ishak, Irfan Zakaria and Syahmi Safari – have also been brought in.

“The players are called up based on their performances in the M-League, so the players should be brave and believe in their abilities.

“Self confidence is important when playing at the higher level,” said Cheng Hoe after his first training session at the Japanese School of Kuala Lumpur in Subang yesterday.

“I just want the players to have the hunger and pride to play for the national team. We only have a short time to prepare for our matches and I want the players to give their best.”

The national team’s first assignment is a friendly against Mongolia at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on March 22 before they leave for Beirut to play Lebanon in their final Asian Cup qualifying group match on March 27.

Malaysia are set to be eliminated from the Asian Cup qualifying campaign as they are rooted at the bottom of Group B with just one point.

Cheng Hoe said all the players reported for training except for Rizal Ghazali of Kedah who picked up a serious knee injury and JDT’s S. Kunalan (ankle). Pahang’s Nor Azam Abdul Azih will only report today as he had family matters to attend to.

“We couldn’t do much training since most of the players played in the FA Cup third round on Saturday, so we just focused on recovery today,” he said.

“We’ll start our tactical preparations tomorrow. We don’t have much time and I hope the players will be able to adapt fast.”