KUALA LUMPUR – National team head coach Kim Pan-gon believes that his charges became overconfident once they took an early lead against Kyrgyzstan in the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup qualifiers last night.
Malaysia took the lead in the game through a Dion Cools header against the 97th-ranked Kyrgyzstan, but then conceded two goals in quick succession to go into halftime 2-1 down.
In the second half, the visitors extended their lead as Malaysia were facing defeat.
“The players got overconfident after taking the early lead. We had a good start but I did not feel it was very comfortable. I shared with the players that we must know who we are, we are not a top-level (team), we must respect our opponents and be humble.
“I like confidence, but we should not be overconfident, and we must respect our opponents’ rankings,” he said.
Pan-gon added that the game is a good lesson for his men to not take any opponent for granted.
“I shared with the players that after we scored, we had chances to extend our lead, but we didn’t convert them.
“Our opponent is ranked higher than us, and when they had the chance to score, they punished us. So this is a good lesson for us.
“I got this feeling from our last game against Tajikistan. We must be confident, brave, and courageous, but we must have respect for our opponents,” he said.
However, Pang-gon said that he was also proud of his players who proved how mentally strong they were when they rallied from 3-1 down to win the match and take home the three points.
“We went to heaven and hell in this game. I don’t like these kinds of games but I’m happy we could win it.
“They did not give up in any situation and learned from their mistakes.
“I’m very proud of them,” he added.
Malaysia’s next match is an away fixture against Chinese Taipei at the Taipei Municipal Stadium on Tuesday. – November 17, 2023