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    14 March 2012| last updated at 08:28AM

    Malaysia playing for pride

    By Ajitpal Singh

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    THE national Olympic squad will have nothing to play for except for pride when they complete their Group C Asian Zone qualifying fixture against Syria in Amman, Jordan today.

        The team are bottom of the table after failing to earn points from their previous five matches and even if they beat Syria, their position in the group will not change.

        Syria and Bahrain are in a neck-and-neck battle for the play-off spot behind group leaders Japan, who have qualified for the London Olympics, with nine points each.

        The Syrians will definitely be firing on  all cylinders for goals and Malaysia must be wary of this.

    Coach Ong Kim Swee left out several regulars in favour of  new faces  as he is using the match to test players for the inaugural AFC Under-22 Qualifiers  on June 23.

       "I did not pick some of them as they will not be eligible for the Under-22 Qualifiers. My priority is to gauge the performance of the younger batch of players in this match," said Kim Swee yesterday.

       "We did our best in the Olympic Qualifiers but our best wasn't enough to make an impression. It proves that we are not quite there yet but I hope my players have gained from the experience."

       Among the new faces in the team are Sarawak striker Ashri Chuchu and Sabah midfielder Rozaimi Abdul Rahman.

       The squad: Khairul Fahmi Che Mat, Muhammad Zubir Mohd Azmi, Ahmad Shakir Ali, Rozaimi Abdul Rahman, Ashri Chu Chu, Ahmad Fakri Saarani, Mohd Azriq Nasrulhaq Badrul Hisham, Shahrul Mohd Saad, Mohd Affizie Faisal Mamat, Mohammad Amer Saidin, Mohd Fandi Othman, Mohd Irfan Fazail, Mohd Izham Tarmizi Roslan, Syahrul Azwari Ibrahim, Muhammad Nazmi Faiz Mansur, Mohd Fadhli Mohd Shas, Mohd Azzizan Nordin, D. Saarvindran.

    Assistant national coach Hassan Sazali (left) monitoring the players training at Wisma FAM last week before their departure for Jordan.

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