KUALA LUMPUR: Harimau Malaya, who are preparing for next month's Asian Cup, will play Syria on Jan 8 in a closed door friendly in Doha, Qatar.
FAM secretary general Datuk Noor Azman Rahman said this today. Earlier, Saudi Arabia cancelled their plan to play a friendly against Malaysia.
World No. 130 Malaysia last played Syria in a friendly in September in China, and held the world No. 91 to a 2-2 draw.
"We are still looking around for a replacement (for Saudi Arabia) but it will be tough and our chances are getting slimmer by the day.
"Most teams have already planned their friendly matches and there's not much time left before our first game against Jordan," said Noor.
Malaysia will play world No. 87 Jordan on Jan 15, No. 86 Bahrain on Jan 20 and No. 23 South Korea on Jan 25 in Group E.
Meanwhile, Bahrain, under Spanish coach Juan Antonio Pizzi, lost 3-1 to Kuwait, drew 1-1 against Turkmenistan, beat Kyrgyzstan 2-0 and the Philippines 1-0 in international friendlies from September to October.
Jordan, under Moroccan coach Hussein Ammouta, will play warm-up matches against world No. 107 Lebanon (Dec 28), Qatar (Jan 5) and Japan (Jan 9).
Two-time Asian Cup winners South Korea, under German coach Jurgen Klinsmann, had won five straight matches since Sept 12. They beat Saudi Arabia 1-0, Tunisia 4-0, Vietnam 6-0 in international friendlie apart from crushing Singapore 5-0 and China 3-0 in World Cup qualifiers.