Ong's suicidal mission
As published in Malay Mail today
By Haresh Deol
haresh@mmail.com.my
PETALING JAYA — Datuk Ong Kim Swee has been named interim national coach after Dollah Salleh called it quits following a humiliating 10-0 bashing by United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Abu Dhabi.
FA of Malaysia (FAM) general secretary Datuk Hamidin Amin, who is also the national team manager, broke the news to Ong after a meeting with FAM president Tengku Abdullah Shah yesterday.
The former international has barely three days with the players before Harimau Malaya host Saudi Arabia at the Shah Alam Stadium on Tuesday.
“They (players) are down. No words can describe how they feel. We could be looking at some of them giving up, or being replaced if they are not mentally strong,” said a source within the national coaching set-up.
“Ong met the players at a hotel in Petaling Jaya yesterday to motivate them. It’s not easy for him too, as this was thrown upon him without warning.”
Another insider said Ong, the Under-23 Harimau Muda coach, gulped when told of his new role.
“He even described it as 'suicidal'. But Ong is on FAM’s payroll and said he was duty-bound to take up the challenge."
The insider added Ong, who was contemplating leaving the national stable, could rethink his exit plan.
“Ong has nothing to lose. This could turn out to be a blessing in disguise if the team gets a good outcome against the Saudis. The key is to forget the UAE match. It is not easy but the players just have to do it.
“No one would want to be in Ong’s position. The pressure is immense. Looking at the bashing from the fans and media, it will take an emotionally strong man to make sure the team pulls through.”
Ong has been a crowd favourite after his squad won the 2011 SEA Games gold medal and 2013 Merdeka Tournament.
His teams, however, failed to defend the SEA Games title after failing to get past the semifinals in 2013 and were booted out during the group stages at the Singapore Games in June.
By Haresh Deol
haresh@mmail.com.my
PETALING JAYA — Datuk Ong Kim Swee has been named interim national coach after Dollah Salleh called it quits following a humiliating 10-0 bashing by United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Abu Dhabi.
FA of Malaysia (FAM) general secretary Datuk Hamidin Amin, who is also the national team manager, broke the news to Ong after a meeting with FAM president Tengku Abdullah Shah yesterday.
The former international has barely three days with the players before Harimau Malaya host Saudi Arabia at the Shah Alam Stadium on Tuesday.
“They (players) are down. No words can describe how they feel. We could be looking at some of them giving up, or being replaced if they are not mentally strong,” said a source within the national coaching set-up.
“Ong met the players at a hotel in Petaling Jaya yesterday to motivate them. It’s not easy for him too, as this was thrown upon him without warning.”
Another insider said Ong, the Under-23 Harimau Muda coach, gulped when told of his new role.
“He even described it as 'suicidal'. But Ong is on FAM’s payroll and said he was duty-bound to take up the challenge."
The insider added Ong, who was contemplating leaving the national stable, could rethink his exit plan.
“Ong has nothing to lose. This could turn out to be a blessing in disguise if the team gets a good outcome against the Saudis. The key is to forget the UAE match. It is not easy but the players just have to do it.
“No one would want to be in Ong’s position. The pressure is immense. Looking at the bashing from the fans and media, it will take an emotionally strong man to make sure the team pulls through.”
Ong has been a crowd favourite after his squad won the 2011 SEA Games gold medal and 2013 Merdeka Tournament.
His teams, however, failed to defend the SEA Games title after failing to get past the semifinals in 2013 and were booted out during the group stages at the Singapore Games in June.
Why worry Ong, your charges only have to lose by a lesser margin and there will be those who would claim that the team is already on the rebound
ReplyDeleteBro Haresh,
ReplyDeleteHa, ha , ha, ha, ha.
Strange but true enough...Middle East blokes seem to be very generous towards us these past recent times.
Forget about the rich Nigerians who used to seek us out via emails to move millions of US dollars from some kingdom into our accounts some years ago.
Now it is time for great Arab flavour for us Malaysians.
Saudi Arabia is busy preparing another intoxicating cocktail for us and they will serve us in golden champagne glasses over the two home and away matches.
A great move by FAM to appoint another retarded and recycled coach to ail the ills of our standard. How pathetic.
What has OKS achieved besides winning the gold in a substandard regional tournament many many moons ago ?
Or have any of the many boys that he had handled these past six to eight years progressed to play,say in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam or Indonesian leagues ?
Lets not forget that during one of his previous globe-trotting jaunts with our juniors in Europe, his team was thrashed 6-0 by Georgia and just recently lost 5-1 to Vietnam.
It doesn't matter OKS or Rajagobal or Sathianathan or Dollah Salleh ......we will never progress as long as FAM remains stunted and detached from reality.
Another major contributing factor for our decline is the antics of the commentators, especially the blokes in Arena Sukan......the likes of Hafizam' Element'.....Omputih Wannabe Zainal, Andrew "Silly" Scully, Falsafah Hasnizam,
Try spare some time to listen to their verbal football diarrhoea on
match days and you can never go wrong on why our football is in the doldrums.They comment for purely self gratifying purposes and say things that borders on total stupidity. Now we have Loose Cannon joining the bandwagon and trying to impress with their stupid so called expertise, and that too in English....Imagine your discussions peppered with English (inappropriate) in a purely Bahasa Malaysia (national language) channel.Whatever has happened to patriotism and upholding of the national language ?
The damage inflicted on our football has been holistic.....from the schools, coaches, administrators, associations, commentators,media,football hooligans, match officials, playing fields, state of stadiums, unpaid salaries, match schedules, broadcasting rights, journalists and everything else related to football in our nation.
The only hope we have now is on Lim Teong Kim and his boys.Hope the bungling FAM is kept far, far away from these fledglings if we are to earn some modicum of regional football respect in the near future.
Cheers
Peminat Sukan JB