M’sia, Nepal women footballers settle for draw
KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysia women’s football team and Nepal let several chances slip past before settling for a 1-1 outcome in their international friendly at the Likas Stadium on Monday.
Dadree Rofinus gave the national squad the lead but the visiting side replied almost immediately through Sabitra Bhandari to force the draw.
National head coach Mohd Asyraaf Fong Abdullah was pleased with how his players tackled the South Asian Football Federation women’s championship runnersup, although he was quick to stress that there was still much room for improvement.
“Up against opponents who are known for their pace as well as organisation and good positioning, the match to me was very good for the team.
“We showed some improvement from our previous meeting, but we still committed too many mistakes and were not up to mark when it came to converting chances.
“We will have another day of training tomorrow (yesterday) to rectify the mistakes and hopefully we will be able to put up a better showing, especially in front of the goal in our second meeting,” he said.
Asyraaf was referring to today’s game when the teams face off again at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Stadium starting 3.45pm.
Malaysia and Nepal were evenly matched in the first meeting with chances aplenty at both ends of the goal.
National number one Nurul Azurin Mazlan was called on to make two superb saves in the first half to ensure the team went into the break scoreless.
The goal finally came in the 64th minute when Dadree sent a looping effort from Shereilynn Elly Pius’ free kick to the cheers of the some 1,000 crowd.
The joy was short-lived though as Sabitra capitalised on a goalkeeping blunder by Asma Junaidi, who had come on for Nurul at the start of the second half, to fire home into the empty net for the equaliser.
Nepal head coach Kumar Thapa also lamented the missed chances on his side, but other than that, he was satisfied with how his players performed away from home.
“The girls played the way we wanted them to play but I think we need to focus more (on taking the) scoring chances.
“We have a few chances in the first half and a couple in the second half but were not able to take them.
“Luckily we were gifted by the keeper, otherwise we would be 0-1 down. I think it was a good mistake for us from the Malaysian keeper that led us to the draw,” he said while vowing that Nepal will do better in the second meeting.
Asked on the national squad, Kumar admitted he was impressed by the Asyraaf-coached side.
“I think it was the same Malaysian team that we beat last December (which Nepal hosted and won 1-0) although I could not remember one or two players from the current team... maybe they are new faces.
“One thing for sure is that they are better than last time and maybe it was because they are playing at home which gave them the extra motivation to show that they are better than us.
“We got the draw and we are happy with that,” he added.
Meanwhile, Malaysia team manager Datuk Suraya Yaacob said the national team would play in at least one more international friendly, most likely in July, as they gear up for the SEA Games in August.