KUALA LUMPUR: Oman may be ranked higher than Malaysia but that doesn't stop coach Kim Pan Gon from telling his men to be equal to the challenge in tomorrow's pre-World Cup clash in Muscat.
In short, the Korean coach has targeted Harimau Malaya to come back with at least one point.
World No. 132 Malaysia will meet world No. 80 Oman in a Group D clash at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.
Pan Gon said in a pre-match press conference in Muscat today:
"We have a very clear aim here, get either one or three points to bring back Malaysia."
Pan Gon said his team have done their homework on Oman, and have an idea of what to expect.
"We studied a lot of (Oman's) previous games and we were confident. But now Oman have a new head coach, we couldn't get much info on. We try to study his game."
The Red Warriors, under their new Czech coach Jaroslav Silhavy, threaten to hand Malaysia their first defeat in the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Malaysia currently top Group D with two wins, against Kyrgyzstan (4-3) and Taiwan (1-0) last year while Oman are second with one win and one loss.
Pan Gon said though some of the national players lack match fitness, he is still hoping for a good performance against Oman to make Malaysian fans happy.
Pan Gon believes that Malaysia have what it takes to go toe to toe with Oman as he feels that the team have been on the ascent in the past two years, and their positive outing at the recent Doha Asian Cup where they held world No. 22 South Korea 3-3 was encouraging.