Farizal and Khairulazhan fight for the No. 1 shirt

PETALING JAYA: The battle for the spot between the posts is heating up between regular custodian Farizal Marlias and newcomer Mohd Khairulazhan Khalid ahead of Malaysia’s 2022 World Cup-2023 Asian Cup Group qualifying matches.

The 33-year-old Farizal, who is also the team’s skipper, conceded five goals in the first three games of Group G and his position is now in jeopardy with Khairulazhan shining upon his return to the national set-up.

Selangor custodian Khairulazhan stepped between the posts effortlessly in the Harimau Malaya’s last two friendly matches – the 2-1 win over Maldives and 1-0 win over Tajikistan last week.

The 30-year-old Khairulazhan said he was ready for the challenge and thanked national team coach Tan Cheng Hoe for calling him up for the first time since 2017.

“I’m ready to play for the national team but it’s all up to the coach. I’m comfortable playing with the national team although it has been some time since I donned the national jersey,” said the Pahangborn Khairulazhan.

“Selangor play a similar style to the national team where we build the game from the back ... modern football requires goalkeepers to be comfortable with having the ball on their feet so I have no problem fitting in with the national team.”

The national team need positive results in their qualifying matches against Thailand on Thursday and Indonesia on Nov 19 at the National Stadium.

They are currently in fourth place in the five-team group with three points from three matches. Thailand top the group on better goal difference ahead of Vietnam although both have seven points. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) are third with six points while Indonesia are still without a point.

The team kicked off their Group G campaign with a 3-2 win over Indonesia on Sept 5 before narrowly losing their next two matches – 1-2 to the UAE on Sept 10 and a 0-1 loss to Vietnam on Oct 10.

Team coach Cheng Hoe stressed that no player’s spot is guaranteed in the starting XI.

“The players know that every time they are called up for the centralised training camp, they have to compete for their spot. There’s a healthy competition in the team,” said the former international.

“We do have key players who we think can give something to the team but they, too, have to perform in training.”