KUALA LUMPUR – Is Pan-gon choosing the right players for his team?
Former national goalkeeper Syed Adney Syed Hussein has urged national football head coach Kim Pan-gon to select the performing players from the ongoing Super League if Malaysia hopes to see a favorable outcome in this year’s AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup.
The Liverpool-born player’s response comes following Malaysia’s failure to qualify for the third round of the recently concluded 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.
Pan-gon’s team, which participated in Group D of the second round of the qualifiers, finished third with 10 points.
The 55-year-old South Korean approached the last two crucial matches of the group (Kyrgyzstan and Chinese Taipei) with seven players from Johor Darul Ta’zim FC, four from Terengganu FC, three each from Sabah FC, Penang FC, Kuala Lumpur City FC, two players from Kedah FC, and one each from Buriram United FC and Kuching City FC.
This resulted in Oman and Kyrgyzstan qualifying for the third round after emerging as group champions and runner-up, respectively, accumulating 13 and 11 points each.
Failure to reach the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers means that Harimau Malaya will have to go through the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers in an attempt to make a second consecutive appearance in the competition.
Speaking to Scoop, Syed Adney said that Pan-gon should prioritise assembling a team with a mixture of both experienced and young players, citing that as the only way for the team to achieve success in the AFF tournament.
Malaysia is grouped with defending champions Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, and Brunei Darussalam/Timor Leste in Group A in the 15th edition of the tournament, scheduled for November 23 to December 21 in a venue of each participating country.
Group B will feature Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Laos.
“There are some positives from the World Cup qualifiers as we are on par in terms of statistics with some of the Southeast Asian teams despite not qualifying for the next round.
“But the AFF will be commencing in November, and Pan-gon needs to be vigilant as it’s not easy to go against teams like Singapore and Thailand in our group.
“For tournaments like these, we need players with experience, and it needs to be a mixture of both young and old players. But most importantly, Pan-gon should choose the right players and mainly those who perform their best in the Super League.
“Those who are performing in the league should definitely deserve a chance to be in his team. Pan-gon has another five months down the road to identify his best selection, and I’m positive about what we can do in the tournament,” said Syed Adney, who played for the national team between 2007 and 2011.
For the record, the last time Malaysia won the AFF tournament was back in 2010 under former head coach Datuk K. Rajagopal.
Meanwhile, former national team captain Datuk Zainal Abidin Hassan believes that Pan-gon will be able to get the best out of his charges if the team receives adequate international friendlies before the AFF tournament.
“For me, the reason why we couldn’t make it to the next round of the World Cup qualifiers is that he didn’t have his best players due to injuries. The script would have been different if he had an injury-free squad.
“But I still have trust in him, and we can see how many changes he has made to the national team since he came on board. We need to give him time, and I have a strong feeling that he will take this team to places.
“For the AFF tournament, I believe that with more international friendlies given to Pan-gon’s team, we can witness a success story this year,” said the player who won 116 caps and scored 50 goals for Malaysia.
According to transfermarkt.com statistics, Pan-gon recorded a 57.14% win rate, with 20 wins out of 35 international matches since taking charge of Harimau Malaya.
His most significant achievement was ending Malaysia’s 42-year wait to qualify on merit for the final round of the Asian Cup in Qatar. – June 23, 2024