How mentally weak can one get? Let in 5 goals and he's traumatised? Someone send him to a shrink.

Anyone watch the Thailand vs Oman game. It was 2-0 to Thailand when I last watched it. Notice that Oman's keeper, Ali Al-Habsi is with Bolton Wanderers, another Asian Premiership player for you. The Thais are showing good skills on the ball, good pace and good tactics. Incidentally, this is everything we don't have!

Does anyone even remember when our senior side last won a competitive game and who it was against?

Cambodia? What about before that?

Cambodia who are ranked 20 places below us, I said 'competitive match'. That was a friendly warm up game What about before that?

Alright mate.

I actually visited the FAM official website and not surprisingly I couldn't find a history of results. I suppose it's for good reason, I mean our results aren't exactly morale boosting are they? Here's what I found in wiki though:

March 26, 2007 Colombo, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka 2 - 1 Malaysia (Friendly)--- we lost to Sri Lanka????

June 18, 2007, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Malaysia 6 - 0 Cambodia (Friendly)

June 21, 2007, Kelana Jaya, Malaysia - Malaysia 1 - 3 United Arab Emirates (Friendly)

June 28, 2007, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Malaysia 0 - 2 Jamaica (Friendly)

July 10, 2007, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Malaysia 1 - 5 China PR (Continental Final)

Here's something else. These were the results for our 2006 World Cup Qualifying Campaign.

Feb 2004, Malaysia 1 - Hong Kong 3

Mar 2004, Malaysia 0 - Kuwait 2

June 2004, China 4 - Malaysia 0

Sept 2004, Malaysia 0 - China 1

Oct 2004, Hong Kong 2 - Malaysia 0

Nov 2004, Kuwait 6 - Malaysia nil

This meant we conceded 18, scoring just 2! and obviously we finished bottom of our group. When are we supposed to qualify for the World Cup again?

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Jul 13 2007, 03:44 PM

We've been talking about sports politics mate. Need I say more?

What about the selection policy that someone posted earlier?

I'd like to continue my Malaysia football team bashing but there's really not much more to be said. I don't care what the more patriotic posters say, our team sucks and is undeserving of support. They have been pampered over and over again after several dismal performances. Still, many feel it's appropriate to baby them, console them, cheer for them, fooling them into thinking it's ok. I liken this to a friend telling another who had just gone through a rocky breakup, "it's ok, it will be alright". Bollocks, it will hurt and you have to get off your ass, and do something about it for it to be better. Similarly our boys need to know that they have to earn our respect, and not have it handed to them on a silver platter. We have to be cruel to be kind. I mentioned before watching Foo Kok Keong puke during his match against Joko Suprianto, fighting for his country in the 1992 Thomas Cup Final. Kok Keong eventually prevailed. Do you see the same amount of dedication from any of our current players?

I'm not a big fan of the Aussies and I must say, I'm pleased they lost. Iraq played really well and their victory was deserved. I hate that **** Cahill, but I must say it's surprising he doesn't make the first 11.

GOAAALLLLL!!!! Another bad piece of defending.

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Added on July 14, 2007, 6:39 pmOn a more positive note, at least the boys look like they're trying this time round.

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Added on July 14, 2007, 6:54 pmOh my god, another piece of comical defending.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Jul 14 2007, 06:54 PM

We are currently ranked 149th in the world. It really puts things into perspective when I can't even name 149 countries.

While the Indonesians fought like lions, we went down tamely like kittens. This is the same Indonesian team we beat 2-1 in a packed Gelora Senayan Stadium in December 2004. That time, Liew Kit Kong scored both goals in a very impressive win. What ever happened to Kit Kong anyway? Fast forward 2 over years and we are getting trounced by teams we used to draw or lose to narrowly. 5-1 and 5-0? In 2 years, our national team has only won 3 matches. Wins over MyTeam, Cambodia and the Philippines aren't exactly anything to shout about given that two of those countries don't even have a professional league, and who fielded a bunch of part-timers. I liken this to the Arcadians who sent farmers, potters and blacksmith's to war against the Persians. We on the other hand were Spartans, seasoned warriors. In this case however, the Arcadians triumphed over the Spartans. Maybe we should go back in time to when our league was still in it's semi professional stage.

The future is indeed bleak, really bleak. In Malaysia, it is common to hear people pointing fingers at one another, and it is no different with our football team. Norizan says the other teams are superior, why is this so? How can he adopt such a mentality? We should be going toe to toe with them and not admiring them. When we scored 1 against China after going 5-0 down, the players celebrated as though we had just scored the winning goal. How sad is that? It's not like we scored against Brazil or Argentina. In just 2 years, our world ranking has dropped 40 places! 40! Here's a reality check. We used to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan and Iran. Then came a slight decline and we had to be content with being mentioned in the same breath as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Where the heck are we now? We now struggle against sides like Philippines, Sri Langka and Laos. How much lower to you reckon we'll sink an another 2 years?

At current, there are 196 countries in the world (http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/numbercountries.htm). We are now ranked 149. We dropped 40 places in 2 years. Assuming that will be the trend, we'll rank 189 by 2009. By 2010, we will officially be the worst team in the world. Come one lads, Malaysia boleh! It is an easier target to aim for.

Dude, read my post. We're ranked 149th!

I find it weird that we can't find any taller players. I see tall kids around all the time.

The Aussies have looked lethargic in their matches and much of it can be attributed to the heat and humidity no doubt. They were the favourites coming into the tournament and credit must be given to the other Asian teams for raising their game. The quality of football has been impressive bar Malaysia of course.

The Thai's are a really quick side and will run the Australians into the ground. They aren't a particularly big side though and you can expect Viduka to be a handful especially in the air. Their best bet would be to play the ball up to Viduka and for the likes of Kewell and Cahill (whom I believe will start this game) to feed off him. The Australians need a win and will push forward. The Thai's should use their pace and run at their defence at every given opportunity.

1) Malaysian Football "Probably the worst team in the world" ala Carlsberg's "Probably the best beer in the world".

2) After another famous Liverpool banner...

We were good in the 70's, average in the 80's and took a break in the 90's. Now we're on permanent vacation.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Jul 16 2007, 09:26 AM

After looking at the table, one thing comes to mind. Lucky we didn't have to play home and away legs, or the results could have been twice as bad! It have been equivalent to our 2005 World Cup Qualifying campaign where we lost ALL 6 games, conceding 18! and scoring just 2.

On a more positive note, did anyone watch the Indonesia (0) vs South Korea (1) game? I must say I was really excited for the Indonesians as they played some exquisite football at times. They at least managed to threaten the Korean goal on a few occasions. Though they played with Bambang as the lone striker, he was well supported by Eli Aboey, Budi Sudarsono, Syansul Chaeruddin and Firman Utina. They were quick going forward and showed impressive skill on the ball to beat defenders. The Koreans were intent of using the height of striker, Jae Jin to trouble the Indonesians who despite their disadvantage in height, defender rather well against their taller opponents, unlike a certain side that plays in yellow and black. Lee Choon Soo was a constant threat for the Koreans and showed a lot of creativity. In the end, the Indonesians lost but they can hold their heads up high, as they gave the 2002 World Cup Semi-Finalists a run for their money! Syabas Indonesia!

I didn't even bother watching the 2nd half of our game as we were intent to defend and not be humiliated.

On a separate note, our Malaysian national juniors beat China 3-0 in the finals of the mixed team world championships!

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Jul 19 2007, 09:19 AM

It's simple mate, just compare our performances with our peers, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Did you watch the Indonesia vs. Korea game. Read my take on it, think it's a couple of posts back. I don't think it's unfair to benchmark us against our SEA counterparts or is it? Perhaps we should lower our expectations and compare us with the likes to Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines.

Blaming imports? Was she not around during the time when our league was semi-pro? We were doing so much better back then. By bringing in quality, and I stress, QUALITY foreigners, our players can learn from them and improve. At one point, they banned imports and the quality of our league nosedived, why repeat that mistake? Or does she not remember? World football has become globalised and many leagues permits a vast amount of foreign imports. Players from smaller footballing nations have gone on to play in competitive leagues, improved themselves and in turn, have improved their nations quality of football as a whole. The problem is that no sane nation would want to import any of our players, what more given recent results. What can be done then? Steps to send players like Akmal Rizal abroad to train showed we were moving in the right direction. The only problem is they sent players who had no burning ambition or desire to succeed at the highest level. The other alternative is to bring in foreign coaches and give them a free reign, or we are doomed to repeat our failings. Having said all that, no amount of changes in coaching or management will make a difference if we do not identify players with the right mental attributes.

On the contrary, Iran played their strongest team because they needed a win to be assured of qualification and top spot on the group.