KUALA LUMPUR — There is growing pressure on the national Under-23 squad following their fourth-placing finish in the recently-concluded Asean Football Federation (AFF) Under-23 Championship in Thailand.
Although they managed to equal the record set in the inaugural edition in 2005, it could not hide the fact that the team failed to achieve the target of qualifying for the final set by the management team.
This is the second time the Harimau Muda have failed to meet the target set this year, having failed to reach the final of the 2023 SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where they crashed out in the group stage.
The latest setback has put their mission of qualifying for the 2024 Asian Under-23 Cup Finals in Qatar in jeopardy as it offers a slot to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Their challenge comes ahead of next month’s Asian Under-23 Cup Qualifiers in Thailand, where they have been drawn against the home team, Bangladesh, and the Philippines in Group H.
The question that arises is why there exists such a contrasting performance between Coach E. Elavarasan’s players and the senior team led by Kim Pan Gon.
The distinct difference is a cause for concern since the youngsters in Harimau Muda are the backups being groomed to continue the revival enjoyed by the senior Harimau Malaya team.
Local football observer Datuk Pekan Ramli said the Under-23 team are supposed to be a “mirror image” of the senior outfit as shown by teams like Vietnam and Thailand, but the Malaysian juniors do not seem to be following in the same footsteps.
“Our Under-23 side do not reflect the senior squad, it’s like oil and water,” he said today.
However, he admitted that the short preparation time and absence of key players could have contributed to their failure in the AFF Under-23 Championship.
Pekan feels that the coaching lineup should also share the blame, especially with its tactical approach which is deemed outdated.
“Their style of play is nowhere near the same as the one adopted by Pan Gon, the Under-23 still play the old way, with lots of long balls.
“I feel that making the semi-finals can be considered a good achievement, judging by the players they had and their short preparation time,” he said.
He said that, realistically, the Under-23 side will be hard-pressed to qualify for the 2024 Asian Under-23 Cup Finals, let alone get a ticket to Paris 2024, based on the level of progress shown by other nations.
Meanwhile, former national Under-23 coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee said Malaysia will end up being also-rans in Thailand if they do not prepare their strongest side for next month’s Asian Under-23 Cup Qualifiers in Thailand.
He said that since the 2024 Asian Under-23 Cup Finals offer an automatic ticket to Paris 2024, Malaysia should use the opportunity to give the other giants a run for their money and spring some surprises.
“We must have an objective when we compete in any junior-level tournaments.
“If we enter just for the sake of taking part, I don’t agree either… if we look at the AFF Under-23 Championship, a majority of Vietnam’s players were aged below 21, meaning they have already started their preparations for the 2027 Asian Under-23 Cup campaign,” he said.
Kim Swee, who guided Malaysia to the gold medal in the 2011 SEA Games, said the Harimau Muda players do have the quality to qualify for the Asian Under-23 Cup Finals, having achieved the feat in the 2018 and 2022 editions.
“We proved it in the past two editions, so if we do not qualify for the Finals this time (2024), surely we must look back at what we have done,” said Kim Swee, who guided Harimau Malaya to the quarter-finals of the 2018 edition of the Asian Under-23 Cup. — August 28, 2023