SHAH ALAM,: National football head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was impressed with the improvement of his side in the 2015 Asian Cup Group D Qualifiers where they were able to catch up fast with the Middle East side.
“What I’m happy about is that we are not easily defeated as we have given the two Middle East countries, Bahrain and Qatar, a tough time.
“I think that’s the improvement from my perspective as the coach. I think it is positive for our (Asian Cup qualifiers) campaign but now we have to forget about this and concentrate on the last match against Yemen (in March next year).”
Rajagobal told this to reporters after the fifth qualifying match against Qatar which saw the Harimau Malaya squad lose 0-1 at the Shah Alam Stadium, here, tonight.
Substitute Al-Ali was the hero for Qatar’s side after his 65th minute strike gave them a slot to the 2015 Asian Cup finals in Australia.
On tonight’s game, Rajagobal said he was happy with the performance of his boys, especially in the second half where they managed to make several attempts at Qatar’s goalmouth.
“I brought in Azamuddin (Mohd Akil) and Mohd Nazrin (Nawi) to give more punch forward and to put pressure on Qatar’s defence but in the end, we had to accept Qatar’s win,” he said while hoping his boys would beat Yemen to save their blushes.
Touching on his coaching term which will expire on Dec 31, Rajagobal said he left it to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to decide.
“Before this, it had never held a talk with me about my contract extension.
My contract says there will be a discussion one month before my contract expires.
“I have been happy as coach and with what I have done so far for our national team. I will wait until Dec 31 before I take my next step,” he said.
Meanwhile, Qatar head coach Fahad Thani said the match was keenly contested since the national side needed a win to keep their hopes to the 2015 Asian Cup finals alive.
“I think the game was tight since this was the only chance for the Malaysian team to qualify for the finals and our target is still to be the top of Group D.
I think our team deserved to collect three points.
“The Malaysian team tried to attack from the start of the match and I was expecting that. So, I decided to strengthen the midfield and centreback position for our team not to make so many mistakes in this game,” he said. — BERNAMA