A Tribute to Malaysia National Football Team
A force in Asian football in the late 1970s, Malaysia have suffered a sharp drop-off in recent years and enter the 2007 AFC Asian Cup as the lowest-ranked of the 16 teams.
One of the earliest bastions of football in Asia, Malaysia played an integral role in the development of the sport in the continent as a founder member of the Asian Football Confederation in 1954 and their national team have been involved in every edition of the Asian Cup since 1956.
And for a time in the 1970s, the country’s national team were a genuine power on the continent, reaching the final round of the Asian Cup in 1976 and 1980 and also qualifying for the Olympic Games in 1972 and 1980.
Having topped a qualification group that included Korea Republic in 1976, Malaysia made their first Asian Cup appearance in Iran in a three-team group that also featured Kuwait and China, only to fall at the first hurdle.
The South East Asian side would be frustrated once again four years later when they narrowly failed to make the semi-final cut in Kuwait City, when a draw with Qatar saw eventual winners Kuwait progress to the last four instead.
The 1980 tournament would prove the high watermark for the Malaysian national team, as they failed to qualify for the next six Asian Cups, narrowly missing out on the 1996 finals after finishing runners-up to Indonesia in their qualification group.
In the 2004 qualifiers, they put themselves into a good position to reach the finals in China with draws against Iraq and Bahrain in the first round of matches in Kuala Lumpur.
But they lost all three of their return matches in Manama with an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to Myanmar putting paid to their qualification hopes once again as Malaysia’s disappointing record in continental competition continued.
Malaysia’s ranking reached an all-time low of 33rd in Asia and 157th in the world in January but they gave fans something to cheer that same month when they reached the semi-finals of the Asean Football Championship despite a 1-0 defeat to Thailand in the group stage.
The four-time SEA Games gold-medallists were within sight of their first appearance in the Asean final since 1996 when Eddy Helmi Manan gave them a 2-1 aggregate lead against Singapore in the second leg of their semi-final.
However, Ridhuan Muhammad’s equaliser 16 minutes from time forced the match into extra time and a penalty shootout, which was won by the island republic side after Khyril Muhymeen missed Malaysia’s final attempt.
Despite that near miss, Malaysian fans are far from optimistic about the prospects of Norizan Bakar’s side at the Asian Cup and progress to the knockout stage from a group that includes Iran, China and Uzbekistan does indeed appear unlikely for the co-hosts and one-time powers of Asian football.
Coach Profile
Norizan Bakar
DoB: 27/01/1961
Nationality: Malaysian
Appointed: Sept 2005
When former Hungarian international Bertalan Bicskei was removed as head coach of Malaysia just before the South East Asian Games in 2005, the FA of Malaysia turned to then Penang coach Norizan Bakar.
Norizan was an assistant to both Abdul Rahman Ibrahim and Allan Harris from 1999 to 2003 before leaving to take charge of Perlis in 2003. He had a successful time with the Northern Lions, guiding them to an FA Cup final in 2003 before winning the coveted Malaysia Cup in 2004.
Seeking a fresh challenge, he took charge at Penang the next season but the islanders struggled, escaping relegation by virtue of goal difference. Rubbing salt into the wound, Perlis ran away with the league title with Pahang 10 points behind in second place.
The former Perlis forward was given only two months to whip the Malaysia team into shape for the 2005 SEA Games and managed to guide the team to a bronze medal finish in the Philippines. That was enough to convince the FAM to stop looking for a foreign coach and allow Norizan to continue with the team.
A poor showing at the invitational Merdeka Tournament in the build up to the Asean Football Championship had the critics baying for his blood but the FAM kept faith in Norizan. He came close to taking the team to their first Asean football final since 1996, losing on penalties to neighbours Singapore in the semi-final.
With Malaysia in what Norizan had quickly termed the group of death for the Asian Cup with Iran, China and Uzbekistan for company, not many Malaysian fans will expect much from the 48-year-old at possibly the biggest tournament of his career.
