Still in a mess

National Under-23 side still plagued by uncertainties

The national Under-23 football team are still in a state of total chaos. The training camp is looking more and more like a hotel as players come and go as they please. Last week, coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee called up 26 players for the 2018 AFC Under-23 championship qualifiers, but only six turned up. Of the six, two were injured and four went back to rejoin their M-League teams. On Wednesday, he finally had his full complement of 26 players, including seven new call-ups. Now, after Thursday’s friendly against Myanmar, three more players have left camp to rejoin their M-League sides. To further complicate matters, Kim Swee is still hoping that the six key players who did not report for duty initially will change their minds before the team leave for Bangkok on Monday.

PETALING JAYA: First they had no team. Then, when they did manage to assemble a team, their friendly against Myanmar was wrecked by a downpour.

It is clear that national Under-23 coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee’s preparations for the AFC Under-23 Championship qualifiers in Bangkok from July 19-23 is in a mess.

Having finally assembled the 26-man training squad, he has had to release three players back to their teams for M-League action. Nur Shamie Iszuan Amin and Tommy Mawat Bada have rejoined Super League side Sarawak while Syazwan Zaipol Bahari has gone back to PNKP for their Premier League match.

To make matters worse, Kim Swee is still in the dark as to whether the six players who were initially called up would join the team before they leave for Bangkok on Monday.

The six are Safawi Rashid, Muhd Haziq Nadzli (Johor Darul Ta’zim); Matthew Davies, Mohd Nor Azam Azih (Pahang); S. Kumahraan and Syameer Kutty Abba (Penang).

“I don’t want to say whether they are coming or not, but the door is open. We still have time before we decide on the final squad (23 players) to Bangkok on Monday,” said Kim Swee, who did not get much chance to gauge his team’s performance although they beat the Myanmar Under-23 side 2-0 in the rain-hit match at the Shah Alam Stadium on Thursday.

Winger N. Thanabalan opened the scoring in the 26th minute before Muhammad Danial Ashraf Abdullah sealed victory with his 87th-minute strike.

“The players have adapted very well since I took over and we’ve implemented three-man defence. But I can see that the players were a little bit sluggish because they have not been playing together for some time. There are other factors as well,” said Kim Swee.

“We failed to move the ball out in an organised manner from defence and midfield. These are just a couple of things we need to work on, especially in defence.

“We have a few more days to train so, hopefully, the players will get better by the time we are in Bangkok.”

A total of 26 players were supposed to attend centralised training at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya on July 5 but only six turned up, including two who were injured. The following day, they decided to release the players back to their teams for the M-League and Malaysia Cup fixtures.

On Wednesday, 19 out of the 26 played finally turned up. Kim Swee also called up another seven new players.

Malaysia will open their Group H campaign in Bangkok against Indonesia on Thursday before facing host Thailand (July 21) and Mongolia (July 23).