KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 ― A visibly distraught national football coach Kim Pan Gon has decided to shoulder the responsibility of his team’s failure to defend the Merdeka Tournament Cup after the Harimau Malaya squad lost 0-2 to Tajikistan in the final match at Bukit Jalil National Stadium last night.

He said that the blame rested squarely on him as he was the one who decided the game play and tactics his players carried out on the pitch and that it was unfair to criticise the players as they had performed quite well in dominating the game and played with full energy against higher-ranked Tajikistan (110th in the world).

"First of all, I’m sorry to the Malaysian public because they put high expectations for us to emerge as champions but sadly, we were unable to do so.

"We failed to handle the pressure from our fans, as well as (our) opponents,” he said at a post-match press conference here, adding that the loss was a wake-up call to the team, which has much to do to improve ahead of their next two 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Group D second round qualifiers next month, when they play Kyrgyzstan at home on November 16 before going to Taiwan for the away game on November 21.

"This kind of experience was painful but we will learn from (our) mistakes. After all, it is not the end of the world,” he added.

Meanwhile, Tajikistan coach Petar Šegrt was all smiles as he praised his players’ discipline throughout the game, stating that it played a key role in their successful tournament debut.

"So, from my side, congratulations (to) these fantastic players and I think that the whole country in Tajikistan were surprised. I think we deserved this win. We played very clearly and (were) very organised,” he said. ― Bernama