QUOTE(aressandro10 @ Dec 10 2011, 04:09 PM)
A 4 year old article that truly represents my opinions why our football is so bad...July 16, 2007
Malaysian Football in a (Coco)Nutshell Alas, it is that time of the year in the Malaysian Sports Calender where everybody inevitably points fingers, assigning the blame to someone, each one more adamant than the other that somebody else is to blame for the latest fiasco. I am of course, talking about Malaysia's latest outing in the international footballing arena. In our first game against China, we got smacked 5-1, while in the second game, we got whipped 5-0. Even the most optimistic of us can't pray for anything else other than a 2-0 defeat to Iran.
Yes, it has been that bad.
And so, true to the wise words of Homer Simpson (Why blame yourself when it is easier to blame others?) everybody has started pointing fingers even before the tournament had ended. Heck, the blame game started even before the players finished their post-game shower after the first game.
The coach has blamed some players for under-performing. The FAM have blamed the coach for wrong team selection, and the Malaysian football fans (this is a term I shall use very loosely for reasons which I shall elaborate further) have been blaming everybody. The only party involved who hasn't blamed anybody are the players, but that is because they are at the bottom of the food chain, and hence do not have anybody to pass the buck to.
But the sad fact is that EVERYBODY involved has to take some amount of blame. And by 'everybody' I mean the Malaysian football fans as well. Contrary to what we would like to believe, we are the ones sitting on top of the food chain - not FAM, not Sultan Ahmad Shah.And so let us start from the very bottom.
It is very easy to blame the players. After all, they are the ones who actually determine whether we get a result or not. They are the ones performing, they are the ones who are the professional athletes. But is it fair? If we were Italians or Brazilians, we have the right to blame the players. But we aren't. Our world ranking of 149 is testament enough that we simply are not good enough. Iran is ranked 47, Uzbekistan 58, and China 76. Anybody who expected any other result would either be an eternal optimist, or an extremely deluded soul.
What can they do if they simply aren't good enough? What can they do if they simply aren't big enough or fast enough? When we look at other national sports, we can easily point fingers at the badminton players for lacking the fighting spirit (Hafiz) or being too cocky (Koo Kien Kiet). But for our footballers, or most of them at least, their problem is their lack of skill.
Certainly, some of them can take the rap for throwing in the towel before the final whistle had blown. In the game against China, we conceeded a soft late goal because the players couldn't wait for the game to be over and fell asleep. Against the Uzbeks, we conceeded two late goals because their minds weren't on the game anymore (more on this later). And yes, a certain portoin of the blame has got to go to the mindset of some of them.
Our star player, Akmal Rizal once had a stint in Germany but was unable to hold a place in the team. He later claimed he was homesick, couldn't get used to the weather and the food, and hence came back to be the Jaguh Kampung he undoubtedly is today. He, along with a few others failed to make the most of the chance given to them to improve their game and came crawling back to their comfort zone.
Then, if you listen to the FAM president, Sultan Ahmad Shah, the coach Norizan Bakar is to blame for our disastrous start against China. He claimed Norizan had messed up with his team selection, leaving Indra Putra and K. Nanthakumar on the bench.
Sure, it is easy to hurl such accusations with the power of hindsight. It isn't just in Malaysian football, mind you. Coaches all over the world get blamed for wrong team selection all the time, but the fans fail to realise that the coaches sometimes make these decisions because they know more about the players than the fans do. In this case, it was very obvious that Indra Putra did not start because he just came back from a long injury, as did Akmal Rizal. Starting with two half-fit strikers is never a wise thing to do.
I do not wish to be in Norizan's shoes. I am totally and utterly convinced that being the head coach of our national football team is the worst job in the country. You have nothing to work with, you have everybody shitting on your head, and you are expected to perform miracles. It is not a job even God could do. Being a national team coach isn't quite the same as being the coach of a club team.
If Sir Alex Ferguson identified an area of his squad that was weak, he could go out and buy players to strengthen that area. If he fails to do that, or makes a wrong signing, his head would be on the chopping block, and fairly so. Encik Norizan Bakar has no such luxury. These players are the best of the lot. These are the players he has to work with whether he likes it or not, or whether they are good enough to face Iran. What do we expect him to do when none of our central defenders have the ability to control the ball and keep possession?
But of course, he still must take some blame for the drubbing. It was suicide to play 4-4-2 against technically and physically superior teams. Realistically, we had no chance of winning, but if the players could keep it tight and frustrate the opponent, we could have nicked something from a set piece (which we are bloody good at). In Jose Mourinho's words, we needed to 'park the bus in front of the goal'. We needed to play 4-5-1 and put 10 men behind the ball at all times. Hit them on the counter attack, hit them with a set piece. We could have at least put up some sort of fight if we made it to half time still level, even if it meant that their keeper didn't need to touch the ball once.
Then there is the favourite bash toy of the fans - the Football Association of Malaysia. Of course, it is simple enough to blame them. They are the ones who run the game in the country. When all goes pear shaped, they should take the heat. And rightly so, for many issues. We have a piss poor youth development programme. The national league is in shambles as are the the State FAs. They are the ones who are responsible for hiring the coaches, setting up the training facilities and scouting for talent so when everything fails,
it is most convenient to blame the FAM and the involvement of politicians in the scene.But politicians have always, always sat at the helm of the FAM. From our beloved Tunku Abdul Rahman right to the present day, the FAM president has always been a politician or a Sultan. And when you think about it, it is not as if the FAM has not realised that the current state of affairs is dire. They have - and they have taken countless number of steps to prevent it from declining further. They have revamped and restructured the league system countless of times in the last few years. In fact, it was the current FAM president Sultan Ahmad Shah, who turned the league from semi-pro to professional.
And when all conventional methods had failed, they tried unconventional methods but to no avail. They tried to piece together a team of youngsters to try to qualify for the 2000 Olympics. More recently was the silly MyTeam competition(not sure how much the FAM was involved in this - but still..) It was a sorry excuse of a scouting programme, but nonetheless efforts were made. What can you do if at the end of the day, when all you have are players that are simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH?
Which makes me wonder...
Everybody seems to ramble on and on about our so-called 'past glories' and how far we had sunk since those days. Just what kind of 'glory' are we talking about here?! We never made it to the World Cup and only made it to the Asian Cup final twice ever in 1976 and 1980, where we didn't even make it past the first round. We go on and on about how it was such a great achievement that we had qualified for the Olympics in 1972 and 1980, but if you need a short history lesson, here's one. Before 1984, Olympic football was for amateurs. Professionals weren't allowed to participate because FIFA was afraid that it would cheapen the World Cup.And if you look at the timeline, it is obvious that our period of 'dominance' only lasted about 10 years - that is one whole generation of players. This is our equivalent of Portugal's Golden Generation. For Luis Figo, Rui Costa and Fernando Couto, read Mokhtar Dahari, Soh Chin Aun and Arumugam. Malaysian football had never seen bigger stars and probably will never see bigger stars. Sometimes, as much as it belittles their achievements, the pure fluke of having a whole generation of great players growing up together and playing together will never be replicated. It was a one-off. Zainal Abidin Hassan and Dollah Salleh aside, there wasn't anybody to replace them, so in truth, Malaysian football had started its decline a long, long time ago.
And that brings me to
the chief culprit in this whole football fiasco - the Malaysian football fans.As I said earlier, that is a term I am forced to use very loosely because
the sad fact is that Malaysians do not make good sports fans. We are 'glory hunters' in every sense of the term.I never had the privillege to watch the great Mokthar Dahari. I never even had the chance to watch the 1989 SEA Games - the last time we actually won something. But the most common excuse people give these days is that we have had no success. It seems we only support our teams when they win, and abandon them when they lose.
Sometimes I wonder whether we deserve world class athletes. In squash and bowling we have world champions, world beaters, but we do not support them much.
Instead of watching Nicol's games, all we do is pick up the papers the next morning and go, "Oh, Nicol won again. Cool!" and then go back about our business as usual.The stadium was less than one-third full for the China game and absolutely deserted for the Uzbekistan game. Where was everybody?! How can we complain that our team isn't performing well when we do not even bother to turn up to support them?
As football fans, we all know the 12th man phenomenon is extremely important. But instead of being the 12th man for our own national side, we only serve to demotivate them.Picture this. You are playing for your country. You are already losing 3-0 and fighting with your inner demons, trying your hardest not to cave in. Nothing has gone right for you all night. You have been outplayed and outgunned. The only thing left that can possibly motivate you is the knowledge that you are representing your country and that you do not want to let your fans down. And then you look up and look around you and find the whole stadium is deserted. And whatever 'fans' you actually have are morons who turn up just to boo and hiss at you.
The fans who, instead of supporting you and your teammates, turn up with banners to proclaim how much you suck. f*** it. What is there to play for?!?!And it's not just the Asian Cup we are talking about. Our players have ZERO experience playing in the big stage. Was it any wonder why we lost to Singapore in the penalty shootout in the ASEAN Cup the other day? The famous Kallang Roar turned our boys' knees into jelly. They were faced with a full-house stadium screaming and taunting them. It is safe to say that most of them, if not all of them have never, ever played in front of a packed stadium before. Nobody supports the local league.
Nobody bothers going to the stadiums to watch the league games. We all thought that the league was getting better a couple of years ago when people flocked to the Shah Alam stadium to watch Selangor. Turns out they were all Indonesian workers going to see Bambang Pamungkas. Imagine that sort of patriotism - hoardes of them going to watch a football game, week in week out just because their fellow countryman played for a team which they should have no alliegience to.
We blame the FAM for not being able to deliver. We expect them to devise a programme that can bring us success in 5 years. And when they try to do that, they inevitably fail - because we are too impatient. You cannot change the whole system in 5 or even 10 years. The whole system needs a revamp.
Somebody needs to say to them, "We give you 15 years. Tear up everything. Start from scratch." But no, we expect results and we expect them today.And without us, without the football fans watching the games, where on Earth are you going to find sponsors?
You can talk about youth development and all that boo-hah but if there is no sustained interest from the public, where do you propose the money comes from? Have a nice look at the American NCAA. I never went to an American university but I hear the fan base is fanatical. The games are even broadcast live on TV and people tune in to watch! Then ask yourself if you would ever consider watching Malay College Kuala Kangsar versus Kolej Tunku Jaafar.
Somebody I talked to just now was ranting about how Malaysian football sucks (it really is the flavour of the day). I asked him if he watched the game and he replied he didn't. "What for support them la? They suck so bad!" I replied, "So why do you care if they suck if you don't bother supporting them?" I remember our Rugby Sevens team getting smacked 73-0 a few years ago. But nobody gave a hoot about it because nobody cares about Rugby Sevens. S
imilarly, if you don't care enough to watch the game, why do you care enough to complain?Who in their right mind wants to play for the national team at the moment?
Who in the right mind wants to be a footballer in Malaysia? You play in front of empty stadiums, get a crappy paycheck and at the end of the day get a barrage of abuses no matter how hard you play. People like Hardi Jaafar and Hairuddin Omar spent the last two games running after every ball, back tracking when the team needed them, playing to their strengths but instead of hearing people say, "At least you did your best" they get people spitting all sorts of abuse on them. That is assuming the public even knows their names, which I am willing to wager a jug of beer that none of you reading this can name our Starting XI.
Don't complain unless you are part of the solution.Start going to the local league games. When we fill up the stadiums, sponsors will come. The money will inject just a little bit more glamour into the game. The players would know that they have something to play for. The kids, the 8 year old kids will look at footballers as their idols and that might inspire them to want to be footballers when they grow up.
How do you propose a youth development system when the kids do not want to be part of the system in fear that they will grow up into a dead career?The blame can go to the players, the coaches and the FAM. But as the fans, we must take responsibilty for abandoning the game in the first place, and then expecting it to flourish after we ignored it for years. Posted by vincent at 1:21 AM
Labels: malaysian footy
http://hantubola.blogspot.com/2007/07/mala...n-nutshell.html I would like to present a rebuttal ( counter-arguments ) on the point of the "glory" days that was deemed as a fallacy by the blogger. Kalau betul "glory" days itu adalah satu fallacy, Malaysia tak akan menewaskan Arsenal 2-0 semasa zaman Mokhtar Dahari pada peringkat peak performance dia. ( Bukti rakaman video pun ada ditunjukkan dalam tV1 baru2 ini ). Arsenal pada masa itu already a professional team seperti sekarang, buat tour macam mereka buat sekarang. Tengok macam mana EPL clubs perform semasa buat friendly kat pre-season around the world sekarang, even kat USA pasukan MU belasah Seattle Sounders ke apa, 7-0. Kat Malaysia dulu senang2 je mereka belasa Malaysia 6-0, yg baru2 ni pun Arsenal belasah kita 4-0, Liverpool pula 6-3. Nak harap kita menang pada zaman ini, memang jauh panggang dari api. Tetapi dulu kita mampu menang dalam pre-season friendlies ni....
Zaman Mokhtar Dahari juga dulu kita pernah belasah Thailand 8-2 ( Ini aku dengar Zainal Abidin Rawop yg cakap dalam tv dulu ), jadi masa zaman tu gap kita dan Thailand adalah betul2 jauh, kita belasah mereka dengan teruk. Kalau betul diorang meragui benda ni dan nak buat studies pasal glory days ni, RTM adalah source yg betul untuk dijadikan rujukan kerana banyak bukti video2 perlawanan dan senarai pemain dalam arkib RTM seperti yg disiarkan dalam rancangan bola sepak klasik TV1, setiap hari Sabtu jam 11:30 malam!
Ni aku ambil dari source internet : "Before the establishment of Malaysia on September 16, 1963, the Malaysia national football team was known as Malaya national football team. Malaya's biggest achievement in football was becoming the bronze medalist in 1962 Asian Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia. " --> Jadi, if anything, at least kita adalah top 3 in Asia pada masa itu, dan Raja Asean yg x perlu dipertikaikan lagi. Kita adalah cream of the crop pada peringkat Asia, kalau pun mungkin bukan pada peringkat dunia.
Pencapaian individu pemain bangsa Melayu sendiri adalah bukti kepada perkara ini, dua contoh paling jelas ialah pencapaian Fandi Ahmad ( Melayu Singapura yg dulu adalah sebahagian dari negara Malaysia) dan Mokhtar Dahari. Mokhtar Dahari kalau diberi peluang dulu, memang layak main kat luar negara seperti Fandi. Fandi Ahmad pula, adalah local legend kat FC Groningen ( that sums it all up, regarding his abilities ).
Kalau betul pun glory days itu diperbesar2kan, aku rasa boleh jadi to certain extent, most evidently kerana pada masa itu kita x pernah layak ke world cup. Tetapi Olympic dulu pun, walaupun dulu hanya untuk pemain amatur, zaman sekarang pula untuk U-23 teams, so ianya bukan untuk full national teams, jadi lebih kurang je statusnya, bagi aku lah...
Silapnya zaman dulu kita hanya at least top 3 peringkat Asia, tidak pada peringkat dunia. Itu sahaja. Kita pun dulu memang tidak konsisten, aku pernah dengar otai2 lama dalam our football yg bagitau yg dulu pun kita ada masalah jumpa certain teams, mostly middle eastern teams....
Bagi aku, benda pasal "glory days" ni kita kena tanya orang2 lama yg in the inner circle, seperti Dato Abdul Ghani Minhat dan Hassan Sani yang masih hidup pada hari ini. Mereka perlu menjawab dengan honest pasal benda ni, baru kita tahu perkara sebenar.
Cuma ada satu point yg aku tak setuju dengan otai2 lama ni. Mereka kata dulu pemain Harimau Malaya main penuh passion sebab nak mewakili negara, kerana minat dan tanggungjawab, bukan semata2 kerana duit dan gaji seperti pemain sekarang. Habis, takkan diorang nak kata Lionel Messi dan C. Ronaldo main bukan sebab duit? Gaji mereka ini lebih banyak daripada our footballers, mencecah beratus2 ribu sebulan. David Beckham pun sama. Kalau aku ada bakat seperti Mokhtar Dahari dan Fandi Ahmad, dan ditawarkan main untuk Harimau Malaya dengan bayaran yg ciput, aku pun tak nak. Lagi2 pula kalau ada anak2 dan isteri, nak bagi mereka makan apa kalau duit takde? Dari satu segi pula, kalau bayaran tak memuaskan dari segi gaji, sensible and level headed parents takkan benarkan their children to take up football as a career. Ini benda mudah untuk difikirkan, jadi memang aku langsung tak setuju kalau mana2 bekas pemain zaman kegemilangan dulu, ataupun orang2 atasan FAM nak bangkitkan benda ni. An irrelevant argument career wise, sebab kat peringkat international, pemain yg dibayar berjuta2 dolar setahun tetap perform well in international duties for their national teams...Mungkin ada sesetengah world class players yg lost motivation setelah menang world cup dan jadi millionaires, seperti Ronaldinho dan Romario dulu, hari2 berparti, pergi disko, performance jatuh. Tetapi masih ramai lagi yg stay dedicated and performing, seperti Ronaldo R9, Dunga, Klinsmann, etc...
Btw, dalam world football, turun naik dalam negara2 kuasa bola sepak dunia ini memang berlaku. Kita tengok kepada Hungary sebagai contoh mudah, dulu mereka kuasa dunia dengan team the Mighty Magyars yg memang rule the world ( pernah dianggap oleh experts as a given untuk menang world cup, tetapi kat final kalah dengan west germany walaupun menang dengan negara sama kat group stage ) tetapi lately mereka tak layak pun ke World Cup. Uruguay dulu juara world cup dua kali, tetapi semasa tahun 1990s, mereka juga tak layak ke World Cup. Spain pula tak pernah menang WC sebelum 2010, memang betul2 perennial underachievers in world football. Tetapi sejak top gun mereka menemui revolusi dan mengamalkan idea tiki-taka dan possession football to compensate for their physical and skill set flaws, terus mereka menang Euro 08 dan WC 10 ( pasal Spain ini, dari perennial underachievers to world conquerers, adakah korang fikir ini hanyalah satu kebetulan? Satu kejayaan tanpa perancangan yg rapi?) Sedangkan dulu pernah top football community dismiss Spanish national football team as perennial failures when it matters most, especially in knock-out stages of the World Cup tournaments. Dulu pencapain terbaik mereka dalam WC sebelum 2010, seingat saya ialah dalam quarter final je...Dulu mereka hanya boleh berbangga dengan liga mereka sahaja as a top 3 league in world football...
Satu lagi yg aku selalu tengok. Algeria selalu dianggap sebagai pasukan yg ada potential untuk jadi world class team, masa World Cup 1982 mereka pernah kalahkan west germany dalam world cup group stage. Tetapi pemain berketurunan Algeria yg membesar di Perancis seperti Zidane, Samir Nasri dan Benzema sudahpun jadi legend, jadi world class players, bukannya setakat berpotensi untuk world class sahaja. Bangsa yg sama, fizikal yg sama, cuma mentality, training facilities, training environment, formative environments dan persekitaran yg berbeza....
Added on December 12, 2011, 5:53 pm "Before the current golden era, Spain won the 1964 European Nations Cup and reached the UEFA Euro 1984 Final. In July 2008 Spain rose to the top of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in the team's history, becoming the sixth nation to top this ranking, and the first nation to top the ranking without previously having won the World Cup. Between November 2006 and June 2009 Spain went undefeated for a record-tying 35 consecutive matches before their loss to the United States, a record shared with Brazil, including a record 15-game winning streak and thus earning third place in the FIFA Confederations Cup. Recently, the team has become known for using a style of play which involves roaming movement and positional interchange amongst midfielders, moving the ball in intricate patterns, and sharp, one- or two-touch passing; this style of play has been dubbed Tiki-taka (or Tiqui-taca). The success of Spain in recent times and their style of play, has helped the Spanish team become a dominant force in world football."This post has been edited by Icahn: Dec 12 2011, 06:01 PM 
Oct 19 2011, 10:29 AM, updated 15y ago
Quote
honorary president tu standardlah...
got or not....
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