LETTER: After all the hype about our Malaysian football team over the past few weeks, I stayed up to watch the Asian World Cup qualifier between Harimau Malaya and UAE which was played in Dubai. It was a dismal disappointment.
We lost 4-0 to a team that thrashed us 10-0, six years ago. We have seemingly not shown good progress or development in our game. The players lacked stamina, imagination and strategy.
They lost the ball easily and gave the ball away easily too. The defense was in shambles and if not for the heroics of the goalkeeper we would have lost by a bigger margin.
The forwards lacked conviction and the midfielders failed to feed the forwards effectively. The quality of our national team is in dire straits.
The presence of four to five 'naturalised' players had not seemed to help as well despite being brought in to inject power, confidence and strength to the team.
No doubt they were value for the money but it is a crying shame having them in the team and showing that we do not have talented and skilled home grown players.
We need to wake up from our slumber and know that we were once a force to be reckoned in Asia in the 60's and 70's.
We had legends like Sharuddin Abdullah, Namat Abdullah, Shukor Salleh, V. Arumugam, Santokh Sing, M Chandran, Soh Chin Aun, Syed Ahmad, Wong Kam Fook, Chow Chee Cheong, Mokhtar Dahari and the list goes on.
They were the home grown boys who brought fear and terror to Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand and Japan.
How can we forget our encounter with West Germany in Munich for the 1972 Olympic Games? Though we lost 3-0, we put up a good and valiant fight.
Those were the glory days of football in Malaysia. hese players were not paid fat sums of money to play for their clubs and nation. They all worked for their living and played for the nation.
Sadly and unfortunately, the Harimau Malaysia players do not show the same commitment and passion when they play for the national team. Just a few year ago, we were ranked just below Bhutan in the FIFA ranking.
Malaysian football has slipped to 153 in the world ranking, its lowest and worst ever standing in the history of our football. We were once the giants of Asia. Now even war torn countries are beating us.
The quality of our national team is in dire straits. There is no commitment, passion nor love for the game. Revamp the whole team and start from scratch.
SAMUEL YESUIAH
Seremban, Negri Sembilan
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times