COACH Ong Kim Swee’s face turned red when the media questioned his tactics in the Sea Games, after Malaysia lost 3-1 to Cambodia yesterday and failed to reach the semi-finals.
It has turned out to be Malaysia's most embarrassing Sea Games outing, having lost 1-0 to the Philippines in an earlier match.
The dismal results in Manila came just when fans had thought Malaysian football is making progress following promising results from the senior and other age-group teams.
Malaysia finished fourth in Group A in the Philippines Sea Games with only four points. Myanmar and Cambodia finished in the top two to qualify for the semi-finals.
“Are you trying to create an issue?” said an angry Kim Swee during the post-match conference at Rizal Memorial Stadium yesterday.
“Nobody questioned my tactics when we defeated South Korea in last year’s Asian Games. So, why is it an issue now?”
After a goalless first half, Malaysia had a chance to take the lead when forward Luqman Hakim Shamsuddin had only Cambodia goalkeeper Keo Soksela to beat but the 17-year-old lobbed the ball over the crossbar.
It turned out to be the turning point as Cambodia took a 3-0 lead through In Sodavid (56th minute), 16-year-old Sieng Chanthea (57th) and Keo Sokpheng (68th).
“We have been struggling from Day One of the competition. When you don't take your chances, it would be tough to win matches.
“Cambodia played really well and congratulations to them,” he said.
Although Kim Swee was not trying to offer excuses, the coach did say his players lacked preparation time for the Sea Games.
“The seniors joined the team only a few days before our trip to Manila. We need to look back on how we had prepared the team.
“A longer training period would have helped as some players do not play regular football for their states and clubs.
“Last year, I had one month with the boys and they did well by reaching the last eight of the AFC U-23 Championships.
“Why not ask Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos on how much time they were given to prepare their teams.
“We cannot compare the current Philippines, Laos and Cambodia teams with their teams from two years ago... they have progressed.
“We cannot take things for granted that we will always be ahead of them.
“There will be a post-mortem when we head back, and from there, we need to come up with solutions for all our age-groups.
“It is not the end of the world... we just need to buck up and continue working,”
On how he felt after Malaysia failed to reach the semi-finals, Kim Swee, who guided Malaysia to gold and silver respectively in 2011 and in 2017, said: “If you talk about this year's edition, yes, it is not something to be proud of. However, my teams did do well in some of the previous editions.”
Cambodia coach Felix Dalmas, whose team beat Malaysia for the first time in their history, said: “We always believed we could beat Malaysia ahead of the match.
“Today we scored three goals against Malaysia, who have great players and a good coach.”