NATIONAL skipper Safiq Rahim wants to only taste victory when Malaysia
play three friendly matches in the next two weeks.
Malaysia will play the Philippines tomorrow before taking on Singapore on
June 8 and 12.
After playing a rather insignificant friendly against
lowly-ranked Sri Lanka, these matches will be tougher for K. Rajagobal’s boys as
the world ranking of the
Philippines is higher than Malaysia, and Singapore have naturalised players.
The Philippines are ranked No 148 and Malaysia 153.
“Although they are ranked above us, the difference in quality isn’t that
great. In fact, we are quite closely-matched in most areas and it would be
interesting games to play,” said Safiq.
“We need to get things right against both teams after suffering some
disappointments in the past.”
Safiq & Co could only manage a 1-1 draw when they played the Philippines
in Manila on Feb 28, whereas being shown the exit at the World Cup qualifiers by
Singapore still stings the Malaysian team.
The match against Philippines will not be any easier than the first time
around as they have beefed up their squad with four Germany-based players.
“Who they have called up is not for us to be concerned about. We have to deal
with these matters. Different countries have different ideologies in terms of
naturalising foreign players and neither is it wrong to do so,” added the
24-year-old.
Just like Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines are expected to take the
friendlies seriously as they prepare for the Asean Cup later this year.
Malaysia are defending champions and having tested around 60 players since
the start of the year, a core of players have already been identified.
Rajagobal has named a 26-member squad, which includes Pelita Jaya striker
Safee Sali, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha, Safiq Rahim, K. Gurusamy and Khairul Fahmi
Che Mat for the friendlies.
Malay Mail
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