Rajagopal: Red card was the real turning point

Malaysia boss Datuk K. Rajagopal claimed that the first half dismissal of Fadhli Shas was the key turning point in his teams Suzuki Cup semi-final defeat in Thailand

After their 2-0 loss to Thailand which eliminated them from the Suzuki Cup, Malaysia boss Datuk K. Rajagopal claimed that the first half dismissal of Fadhli Shas, after a seemingly innocuous incident with Datsakorn Thonglao, had a major impact on the game.  “We expected this level of pressure. But still we played well early in the first half. The red card was the real turning point. With equal players I'm sure we should have got a better result."

The under fire manager also believed that the pressure of the occasion weighed heavily on the South Korean referee, Lee MinHu.  "The referee just couldn’t keep up with the game when the pressure from Thailand was on.”

Despite a lacklustre showing by him team, even when they had 11 men on the pitch, Rajagopal was not critical of his players.  “All in all I'm satisfied.  I won't blame my players. I just want to analyze and fix our errors."


Malaysia striker Safee Sali was full of praise for Thailand’s Teerasil Dangda, who opened the scoring and is now the competitions leading goal scorer with five goals.  “Teerasil is very dangerous. All the players behind him support him very well, especially Datsakorn. He always supplies very good balls.”  Sali also believes that Teerasil is currently the best striker in ASEAN and can help fire Thailand to victory over Singapore in the final: “He's very sharp and keeps the ball well. Thailand has every chance to win this tournament."

Thailand manager Winfried Schafer was delighted with the performance of his team and felt that he was justified in keeping faith in his starting 11.  “We're happy tonight. It was a fantastic performance from us. In the last 15 minutes we were still looking for 3rd or 4th or 5th goals even though we could keep it 2-0, but we just couldn't finish it.  This is exactly the same line up in KL four days before. Even though we didn't play well that night, we believed in them, and now they showed how good they can be. The deserving winners."

The German boss didn’t feel that the first half dismissal of Fadhli Shas necessarily affected the final result.  "Even if it was 11 vs. 11, I believe the result would have been the same. The important thing is we could handle the crossing which caused us many problems in the last game. Koh (Datsakorn) supplied many good balls for Mui (Teerasil), that's why we won."

Goalscoring hero Teerasil Dangda was overjoyed at reaching the final and dedicated the win to the Thai fans:  “Surely I'm glad we're into the final. I have to thank you all the supporters who came here and supported us. This win is for them.”

Football , Team

The Malaysian national football team (Malay: Pasukan bola sepak kebangsaan Malaysia) nicknamed Harimau Malaya, after the Malayan Tiger, is the national team of Malaysia and is controlled by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). Before 1963, the team represented the Federation of Malaya and was known as the Malaya national football team.
The most significant successes of the team has come in the regional AFF Suzuki Cup (formerly known as the 'Tiger Cup'), which Malaysia won in 2010 for the first time in history. They beat Indonesia 4–2 on aggregate in the final to capture the country's first major international football title.
Malaysia had many top players since the creation of the Federation of Malaya until the country became known as Malaysia, such as the legendary Mokhtar Dahari and Sabah FA's Hassan Sani and James Wong, which led Malaysia into their golden age during the 1970s until the 1980s. Before Mokhtar, The Malaysian King of Football, Datuk Abdul Ghani Minhat was the most famous and respected footballer in the whole Malaya during the 1950s until the 1960s. Malaysia's 15–1 victory over the Philippines in 1962 is currently the record for the highest win for the national team and the record has never been broken since then. In the current generation, Mohd Safee Mohd Sali and Norshahrul Idlan Talaha are considered by Malaysians as their best striker pair.
In the FIFA World Rankings, Malaysia's highest standing was in the first release of the figures, in August 1993, at 75th. Malaysia's main rival on the international stage are their geographical neighbors, Indonesia and Singapore, and past matches between these two teams have produced much drama. Malaysia is one of the most successful teams in Southeast Asia along with Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, winning the ASEAN Football Championship 2010 and other small competitions while improving at the same time.



The Malaysian national football team