KUALA LUMPUR: Ong Kim Swee’s love affair with the Sea Games will continue in the Philippines next year as he attempts to guide his national youth team to the gold medal for a second time in his coaching career.
In his first Sea Games outing as coach, the 48-year-old guided his team to the title in 2011 (Indonesia), but returned empty-handed in the 2013 (Myanmar) and 2015 (Singapore) editions.
Last year, his team were edged 1-0 by Thailand in the final of the Kuala Lumpur edition.
The Melaka-born hopes his team will regain their superiority in next year’s outing.
For the record, no Malaysian coach has guided the national youth team to four Sea Games editions.
“It will be my fifth Sea Games next year. I really don’t know how long I am going to last in this biennial games.
“I have won a gold and a silver, and winning a bronze in the Philippines would complete my collection of Sea Games medals, but obviously, I do not want my team to finish third next year.”
Kim Swee’s youth squad performed well this year in two international competitions.
They reached the quarter-finals of the AFC Under-23 Championships for the first time before losing 2-1 to South Korea.
At the Indonesia Asian Games in August, his team shocked eventual champions Korea in the group stage but bowed out 1-0 to Japan in the last-16.
With confidence on their side, Kim Swee believes his team can make further inroads next year.
The team will open next year’s campaign in the AFF Under-22 Championship in Cambodia (Feb 17-Mar 2), followed by the AFC Under-23 Championship, which doubles up as an Olympic qualifier, and the Sea Games.
“We will have a training-cum-friendly matches tour in Bangkok next month. We will be going there during the pre-season, so we will play matches with clubs.
“The goal is to get the players gel as a unit. I tested several newcomers at the recent Newspaper Cup in Vietnam. I will call up the best players from that tournament and also our regulars, who did not go, for our first tournament in Cambodia,” he added.
Malaysia are in Group B in the AFF competition with Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Singapore.
As for the U-23 tournament, Malaysia will face China, Laos and the Philippines in Group J in Kuala Lumpur.