KUALA LUMPUR: The false sense of Malaysia's rise in Asian football has been shattered by two blows from Oman in two weeks.
The FA of Malaysia (FAM) now finds itself desperately trying to find a way to arrest the national team's drop in world ranking or else the consequences will be dire.
Harimau Malaya are expected to slump from world No. 132 to No.136 following the two back-to-back losses to Oman in the World Cup qualifiers.
After falling 2-0 to Oman in Muscat in the first leg, national coach Kim Pan Gon thought that his men would get a different result in the return leg at Bukit Jalil. But the Arab visitors still won by the same scoreline.
Football critic Dr Zulakbal Abdul Karim said Harimau Malaya are now facing reality after their feel-good wins against several lower-ranked opponents last year.
"The national team played 'easy' opponents in the likes of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. But when they played the higher-ranked teams, it showed our actual strength," said the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris Sports Science associate professor.
"We were beaten by Oman twice, and the defeats showed that Malaysia are still lacking at a higher level. Tactically and technically, we are still behind the higher-ranked teams, and this is something that we need to work on fixing."
Zulakbal, who is an AFC Professional Coaching diploma holder, said having a good ranking is vital to Malaysia getting a favourable seeding in draws and quality opponents for friendlies.
"When you are at a certain ranking, you cannot be playing lower-ranked teams. Winning these matches won't give a lot of ranking points and the players also will not learn.
"We need to have a strategy to maintain or improve our ranking."
He said Malaysia's 3-3 draw against South Korea in the Asian Cup in January had given the impression that they could match the continent's big guns, especially teams from the Middle East. But nothing could be further from the truth.
And Harimau Malaya haven't won any matches this year. They were held to a 2-2 draw by Syria in a friendly in Doha on Jan 9. Later in the same month, they lost 4-0 to Jordan and 1-0 to Bahrain in the Asian Cup in Doha before the much-talked about draw with South Korea.
Malaysia will meet Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek on June 6 and Taiwan in Bukit Jalil on June 11 in their remaining World Cup qualifying matches.