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Hope was rekindled for our national football team when Malaysia won the SEA Games in 2009. Hope turned into conviction when the national team clinched the AFF Suzuki Cup last year. The team’s style of play, lead by Dato K Rajagobal, looked promising and there was finally a sense of tactical awareness and discipline, along with fairly good technical skills that was lacking in the previous years. So was this revival a short lived one or was it a start of something great?

In the previous games of the Qualifiers, Malaysia managed to squeeze past Chinese Taipei through away goals rule with the aggregate of 4-4. The first leg at Bukit Jalil was rather eventful as Malaysia took charge of the home advantage and won the match 2-1. In the return leg at Chinese Taipei, this was where our weakness started to surface. Having the 1 goal cushion, the Tigers of Malaya knew they needed to get a respectable result to ensure there was a safe cushioning and to do that the Tigers would have to get at least one more goal. They pushed the Taiwanese and manage to get 2 but with the team’s eagerness to move forward the Taiwanese manage to expose our weak defensive line and scored 3, making the aggregate 4-4. The Tigers were lucky not to concede one more.

The Team’s weakness was apparent but it seemed nothing was done to fix it. We couldn’t be short of quality defenders from the Malaysian Super League, could we? The 10 goals scored by English Premier League giants Liverpool and Arsenal in the friendly matches wasn’t helpful either.

Then came the match against our southern counterpart, Singapore. Singapore’s team comprised their foreign legion or naturalized citizens from China, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, and England while the Malaysian team comprised fully local players. The first leg in the Lion City was played in a small stadium with the capacity of 6,000 seats and artificial turf. It was clear that the Malaysians were not used to playing in such a narrow and enclosed pitch. To make matters worse, Malaysia was without their main backline; goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat and key defender Mohd Aidil Zafuan. The Lions took full advantage of our weak defense. Even though we took the very early lead through Safee Sali in the 27^th second after the start but the Lions attacked with guns blazing and smashed through our defenses to get in four goals past keeper Sharbinee Alawee.

The second half of the match saw the Tigers tightening up their gameplay and pushed forward with everything they had and we were rewarded with 2 well-executed goals. However, Singapore’s veteran Bosnian import Aleksandar Duric gave the Lions their 2-goal cushion again by navigating his way expertly through the Tigers’ defenses. To add salt to the wound, Malaysian captain Safiq Rahim was sent off the field at this point for a nasty challenge. End of that match, the score was 5-3. That match clearly left a bitter taste or would I say rubbery taste of artificial turf in our mouths.

Then came last night, where calls for a chance to hit back with a vengeace. Dato K Rajagobal had no choice but to find solutions to strengthen the defense while filling the gap left by Safiq Rahim. In the second leg, King Raja, as the fans call him, called on hard tackling centerback Mohd Aidil Zafuan, even though he was not fully fit to play. His task was to neutralize Duric.

Fans flocking in

The build up to the match was tremendous as tickets were sold out within hours of sales. Fans from all corners putting aside all differences (including myself) swarmed in Bukit Jalil to help drive the team to overcome the 2 goal deficit. Everyone was in good spirit as fans start pouring in the stadium 3 hours before kickoff. Banners like “Tanah Tumpahnya Darahku”, “King is Raja”, “Kamon Malaysia” , "Go! Harimau Malaya!" and many more were put up. The cheers were deafening and horns were blowing when the Malaysian team came out for their warm up. When the national anthem was played everyone sang in unison proudly and loudly.

Full house after 7pm

Then the match started, it was box-to-box action but slowly Singapore appeared to gain the upper hand . Fortunately for us, we have goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat who made several outstanding saves, which included two one on ones.

After 20 minutes, Aidil Zafuan had to be replaced by Muslim Ahmad. The Malaysian attack lead by hitman Safee Sali could not break the resilience of the Singaporean defense. The first half ended in a stalemate at 0-0.

During the second half, the lack of creativity and penetration in the Malaysian’s attack continued to frustrate the fans as passes were not completed well. But after the 57^th minute, Safee Sali who followed through on the pass by S Kunalan who eluded nicely the Singaporean defense team scored a beautiful goal from the edge of the penalty area.

The deadlock had been broken. Cheers of joy erupted throughout the stadium There was a glimmer of hope for us after all. However, by the 72^nd minute, it all came crashing down as Duric flicked to Shao Jiayi who finished it off coolly. The cheers of joy were replaced by somber silence as our chances of defeating the Lions were starting to fade.

When the final whistle was blown, the Malaysian players looked dejected as their heads were down in contrast to the celebratory Singaporeans. The score at the end of the game was 1-1 with the aggregate of 6-4. However, a large portion of Malaysian fans gave a rousing applause , singing and waving the Jalur Gemilang as support for the team who gave it their all.

Fans applauding after the final whistle

At the end of the day, even though there was a sense of disappointment, the silver lining was that our national team, which comprised of players averaging 25 years of age, could only get better through experience. A couple of heroes like Safee Sali and Khairul Fahmi Che Mat had shown immense talent and their stars will continue to shine. Playing the blame game is all too easy. Malaysians need to show support for our team more than ever if we all were to move past this and emerge on the other side a much stronger team.

Article and Pictures by Jun Sern & Azmir