BEKASI: A penalty towards the end of the match ended Malaysia’s hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals of the Asian Games football competition when they lost 0-1 to Asian powerhouse Japan earlier tonight (Friday).
Defender Dominic Tan felled Ayase Ueda in the penalty area in the 88th minute and the Japanese player took the penalty and scored to break Malaysian hearts and hopes at the Chandrabhaga Patriot Stadium in Bekasi.
The penalty effectively ended Malaysia’s challenge, despite the national team performing splendidly especially when they stunned defending champions South Korea 2-1 in their second group match.
During the last-16 encounter, it was the Japanese who controlled the match as they piled on the pressure in search of a goal.
Throughout the match, the Japanese players carried out a wave of attacks on the Malaysian goal with Reo Hatate coming close to scoring in the 34th minute.
However they were kept at bay thanks to the determination and high level of discipline and resilience displayed by the Malaysian players, especially goalkeeper Haziq Nadzli who was adamant on keeping the Japanese forwards at bay.
Malaysia also tried to break the Samurai Blue’s dominance during the match and attempted to orchestrate attacking moves into the Japanese half which did cause trouble for Hajime Moriyasu’s charges.
Malaysia’s best chance came towards the end of the match during the last 10 minutes as Safawi Rasid’s two attempts on goal unluckily hit the post.
In fact Syafiq Ahmad almost scored with a header in the 72nd minute but it went wide off the mark.
National coach Ong Kim Swee was disappointed with the defeat, but he pointed out that they came up against strong opponents and played rather well to give the Japanese a tough time before eventually conceding the penalty during the last minutes of the match.
“Yes this defeat is a bitter pill to swallow as we came very close to upsetting our opponents. However we have learnt a lot throughout our participation here and the lessons learnt will only make us better.”