KUALA LUMPUR: As Malaysian football fans look forward to next month's Asian Cup in Doha, the continental tournament only brings back bad memories for Shahrulnizam Mustapa.
Shahrulnizam was part of the last Malaysia team that played in the Asian Cup 16 years ago.
Malaysia are making a return to the quadrennial Asian Cup on merit.
Malaysia got to play in the 2007 Asian Cup as hosts.
The team, coached by Norizan Bakar, lost their group matches badly.
Malaysia were beaten 2-0 by Iran, hammered 5-1 by China and 5-0 by Uzbekistan.
Angry fans slammed Malaysia's performance as a "national disaster" and coach Norizan was swiftly sacked.
Shahrulnizam, who was a midfielder then, told Timesport the 2007 Asian Cup is one which he wants to forget.
The 42-year-old. who is an assistant coach with Perak now, said the national team back then were not good enough to play in the Asian Cup.
"Now, everyone is looking forward to the Asian Cup. The national team are doing well and the fans' expectations are high."
"However, for me, the Asian Cup is something that I don't want to remember... it has no good memory for me due to the results and the backlash that we received.
"We were facing some of the best Asian players who were based in Europe. Iran had Mehdi Mahdavikia who was with Eintracht Frankfurt and Ali Karimi was with Bayern Munich.
"China had Sun Jihai from Man City and Li Tie who played for Sheffield United. These teams had quality players and a comprehensive coaching unit from that time itself.
"The gap between us and the other teams was just too big."
However, Shahrulnizam said things have changed now and Harimau Malaya are in good stead to deliver a better result at the Doha Asian Cup.
World No. l30 Malaysia will kick off their Group E campaign against No. 87 Jordan at the Al Janoub Stadium on Jan 15 followed by matches against No. 86 Bahrain at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium (Jan 20) and No. 23 South Korea at the Al Janoub Stadium (Jan 25).
"It was a lesson for Malaysian football at that time and after that, things started to improve. I believe we can do much better in this Asian Cup," said Shahrulnizam.
"The national team under coach Kim Pan Gon seem to have a good balance, the players are able to challenge higher ranked teams. There's a clear difference from the previous national teams. I think the national team need to be confident in the Asian Cup, they should not think about results and just focus on delivering what is planned for the match.
"I hope the team will do well and bring glory and good memories to Malaysian football."