Malaysia ideally needed three points. We played for a draw. We came home empty handed.
That is the aftermath of our trip to Bahrain in the 2015 Asian Cup qualifiers on Friday. The triviality of results all said and done, we need to get down to the quality of football and that was the most difficult bit to swallow.
But where do we start? At the beginning I suppose.
A right-footed full-back playing at left-back, a right-footed midfielder in the wide left position, and a second striker playing wide right in midfield.
What could K. Reuben, C. Kunalan and Azamuddin Akil have done in the past to be put in this situation?
Never mind the fact that Kunalan spent all his time at left-back. Where was the left-back or did we play with wing backs?
If it was to confuse the Bahrainis, it only left us bamboozled. Could it be that a country of 28 million people is so short of talent that this situation developed?
Oh no! Did I just use a dirty word? Develop, developed, development?
Who cares? Actually, the Youth and Sports Minister does. I always have. And my friend's cat does too.
By the way, Bahrain were ordinary on the night. The first 15 minutes in the second half showed that they were ripe for the taking, buzzing around with possession but lacking ideas when it came to the final third.
Amri Yahaya will rue his poor toe-poke from the edge of the six-yard box. All said and done, the Malayan Tigers held firm but for a rash decision by Aidil Zafuan to dive in needlessly for the ball and allow Ismaeel Abdulatif to fire home.
Anyway, a victory against Qatar at home tomorrow night (8.45pm, Stadium Shah Alam, Selangor) and subsequently handing Yemen a footballing lesson (on March 5, 2014) could see Malaysia well on their way to an Asian competition where the host nation is from a different continent, calls the game soccer and says zero instead of nil when reading out the score.
European WC2014 playoffs
Moving on and out of our country of 28 million people, which seemingly cannot produce a naturally left-footed left-back, Cristiano Ronaldo could rue that header which smacked the crossbar late in the second half against Sweden on Friday night.
It was definitely a good stooping header for a one-zero, sorry, one-nil scoreline, which is an apt lead to take to Stockholm on Tuesday night (3.45am, Wednesday morning).
The potential game plan in Stockholm could be to invite the Swedes forward and hit them on the counter, a tactic which plays into the strengths of Portugal's two wingers.
It is difficult to see Sweden having enough creativity in midfield to adequately supply Zlatan Ibrahimovic against a well-disciplined and physical Portuguese back line.
On the whole, Portugal against Sweden was dour except for Joao Pereira at right-back who dominated the right flank. The Swedes were ordinary on the night against a very average Portugal, separated by a man who just can't stop scoring. More of the same come the return leg, I suppose.
Despite Laurent Koscielny slapping Oleksandr Kucher, it was the French who returned home gobsmacked from a poor outing in Kiev. A two-nil deficit is no easy task to overcome, and Didier Deschamps may be a World Cup winner and a good coach but they need a classy playmaker.
At the 2006 World Cup and in 1998, Zinedine Zidane was the creative heart of the French midfield, and prior to that they could call upon the class of Platini - now the creative duties lies at the feet of Samir Nasri.
With Yoann Gourcuff out of favour at Lyon and the French national team, Deschamps could do worse than to involve Yohan Cabaye and/or Clement Grenier at some point in the return leg.
The decision to start an exhausted Olivier Giroud at the expense of an in-form Karim Benzema was puzzling - Benzema would be far better suited in linking up with an out-and-out winger such as Franck Ribery, having had vast experience playing alongside another possession-intensive left-sided attacker.
Regardless, Deschamps needs a sterling performance from his boys if Les Blues are to avoid missing out on an international competition for the first time since failing to reach the 1994 World Cup finals.
That shock elimination came at home in Paris thanks to an Emil Kostadinov strike in the 90th minute of their final qualifying fixture; France will be hoping a last-gasp winner will be theirs to savour this time around. - November 18, 2013.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
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