Yearning for glory days of football
IT is sad that Malaysian football has sunk to such low depths. We have to face reality that at world standings, Malaysia ranks at 178. Yes, it is no dream; that is the fact of it all.
I take pride in having lived through the ‘60s and ‘70s when the standard of Malaysian football was at its glorious best. We took the bronze medal at the 1974 Asian Games in Teheran, Iran. We were on a par with the giants of Asia then, like South Korea, Japan, Iran and Iraq.
When great teams came to visit, such as England B and the Red Star Belgrade, we were no pushovers. With the likes of M. Chandran, Santokh Singh, Arumugam, Mokhtar Dahari and Abdul Ghani Minhat, we traded blow for blow with these teams till the very end, not to mention the super goal scored by Supermokh against England B, whose goalkeeper was the towering figure of Joe Corrigan.
Sadly, what we have now is a team languishing at the lower rungs of world soccer.
Over 30 years have passed, and great coaches like Frenchman Claude Le Roy have come and gone, but to no avail.
The problem isn’t the coach but the mindset of our footballers. Do they want to dream big to achieve big? Are they willing to train by pushing themselves to the limit to improve themselves? Some would start complaining and whining when the training gets tough and too arduous.
Many are content with what they are getting from the Malaysian League, I suppose. They are in the comfort zone and don’t intend to work harder as profes- sionals to improve themselves to the next level.
Look at, for example, South Korea’s Son Heung-min who is currently trailblazing with Tottenham Hotspur in England. By pursuing his career abroad, he has improved by leaps and bounds.
Our players are in their comfort zone, content with life at home. Even if they are given the blessings to go abroad to hone their skills, the desire, commitment and willpower are not there.
It is also not easy to go back to the glory days when there is interference from other sources to negate whatever positive developments there are.
The Ola Bola film may have conjured team spirit and national pride, which is pivotal if Malaysian football is to thrive and flourish.
Probably the right mix in the team is vital too, and this is worth looking into. We could take a leaf out of the teams of the ‘60s and ‘70s and, of course, also the hockey team that performed so admirably at the 1975 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
The same analogy could be applied to the present Manchester United Football Club. They keep on splurging cash on players but, sadly, they don’t seem to click. They don’t gel as a unit on the pitch and play without flair and desire. In short, the right mix isn’t there.
It is a monumental task to regain the glory of the ‘60s and ‘70s with a whole new generation of individuals having an all too different mindset. Malaysian football is in a quicksand state in that it keeps sinking by the day. Dealing with the mind is a delicate issue and only a catastrophic upheaval can bring back the glory days. As professionals, the players are responsible for this too.