U-23 squad told to maintain discipline against South Korea

Kuala Lumpur: The national U-23 football squad have been told to keep their discipline until the final whistle against South Korea in the quarter-finals of the Asian Football Confederation Under-23 (AFC U-23) Championship. Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin called on the squad under coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee not to fear their opponents as they had proven their capability in the 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in the last Group C match.

"I hope our players would not be overwhelmed by the Koreans as Kim Swee had moulded the best team against Saudi Arabia the other day. I hope the win would boost the confidence of the players and to fear no one.

"This shows that if we have the confidence to win, anything is possible," he told reporters at the launch of Youth and Sports Skills Training Institute (ILKBS) digital programme towards 2050 National Transformation (TN50) in cooperation of Microsoft Malaysia, Thursday.

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Khairy also commended the system of play deployed by Kim Swee which was seen to be effective in beating Saudi Arabia.

The national junior squad also set their own record when they qualified for the quarter-finals of the AFC U-23 championship taking place in China. In the match in Kunshan Stadium, the solitary goal was scored by Danial Amier Norhisham in the 28th minute which was good enough to book Malaysia's place among the best eight teams in Asia.

Meanwhile, the national Under-23 squad maybe listed in category A in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang from Aug 18 to Sept 2.

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary-general Datuk Low Beng Choo said if the squad wanted to capture a category A slot, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) needed to give strong justifications based on the current performance and team ranking at Asian level.

"For the time being, we have not made the decision on the types of sports to be in category A or B.

We will only decide on the category for each sport at the second selection meeting.

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"At the first selection meeting last week, we only gave the opportunity for national sports associations to prepare and give us the criteria why they should be in category A," she said after the first meeting with Asian Games team sports managers at Wisma OCM here, Thursday.

Sports in category A will have all costs to the Games undertaken by OCM and the National Sports Council (MSN) while in category B, sports associations would have to undertake the cost which could be claimed if they won medals. – Bernama

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