KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 — “It’s like watching the spirit of the Malayan Tigers in the 70s again”.
That was the reaction of national football legend Datuk Dollah Salleh, who admitted to being amazed to see the performance of Kim Pan Gon’s players in managing a 3-3 tie with Asian football giants, South Korea in the last action of Group E, Asian Cup 2023 at Al Janoub Stadium, Doha, Qatar on Thursday.
He said the action exhibited by Harimau Malaya brought back the glorious days of the country’s football team in the 1970s, comprising legends like Mokhtar Dahari and R. Arumugam, who are now deceased, and Datuk Soh Chin Aun.
“I was stunned to see the way they played... their spirit left me speechless, (and) if possible I would like to be in the stadium. It seems like the spirit of the 1970s team has returned.
“Alhamdulillah the team showed an outstanding performance against South Korea and all Malaysians were entertained by their style of play and spirit, I salute them,” he told Bernama.
Based on such a performance, the former national squad coach opined that it is not impossible that Malaysia can pull off a surprise in the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers if they continue to maintain the current momentum.
“It was the best, even though we were eliminated (from the competition), but we almost made a surprise. Not only against South Korea, in fact, against Bahrain,” he said.
The Sri Pahang team manager also praised the hard work of national strikers, namely Darren Lok, Mohamad Faisal Abdul Halim and Arif Aiman ??Mohd Hanapi, who were able to foil the defence under the guidance of former German star, Jurgen Klinsmann.
In the meantime, Dollah said it is difficult to judge the performance of naturalised players, especially those aged 30 and over, whether they are still eligible to wear the Harimau Malaya jersey or not.
However, he said, the national squad still need their services to balance the strength of the local players.
“When I was a Malaysian coach, I suggested that if we want to go far in football, we need to use the services of naturalised players, but not to an extent that we forget the talent of local players,” he said.
On November 16 last year, Harimau Malaya defeated Kyrgyzstan 4-3 at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil in the Group D match of the second round of the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers followed by a narrow 1-0 win against Taiwan at the Taipei Municipal Stadium.
Meanwhile, a football observer Mohd Sadek Mustafa believes the maturity of the national players in managing and absorbing the pressure in the final action of group E against South Korea is the ‘key’ for the squad to perform better than the previous two matches.
The senior lecturer at the Faculty of Sports Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, Selangor, said that the positive development can be seen through the performance of midfielder Faisal Halim, for giving a creative first goal for Harimau Malaya.
“Mohamad Faisal Halim’s ability has changed Malaysia’s character and it shows great maturity. At this age, he has shown good leadership and he can change the outcome of a match despite his small stature,” he said.
Harimau Malaya ended the 2023 Asian Cup competition campaign by creating a sensational tie with the giants of Asian football, South Korea, 3-3, in the last match of Group E.
Despite the draw with South Korea, Malaysia’s desire to make history by qualifying for the round of 16 of the 2023 Asian Cup was not achieved after losing the first two matches of Group E, 0-4 at the hands of Jordan and 0-1 at the hands of Bahrain respectively, thus occupying the last place with one point. — Bernama
