Longer wait now for Cheng Hoe
National coach Tan Cheng Hoe is someone who craves for football action. Sadly for him, his craving will not be satisfied anytime soon.
The 2022 World Cup-2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, scheduled for October and November, have been postponed to next year.
The Asian Football Confederation, in a statement, confirmed that they and FIFA have jointly decided that the upcoming qualifying matches will be rescheduled to 2021.
The decision was taken to protect the health and safety of all participants and FIFA, and the AFC said they would continue to work together to closely monitor the situation in the region and to identify new dates for the respective qualifying matches.
Cheng Hoe was obviously a disappointed man.
He said that as a coach, he had hoped that the qualifiers would have given him the competitive action he needed, but had to respect the decision made by the bodies.
“It is a decision that we have to accept because of the uncertainty of the pandemic. With this postponement, we have to be really prepared for a packed 2021,” he said.
“It is a challenge because we do not have any assignments this year. Now, I have to prepare a good programme in 2021, and players have to mentally prepare themselves for a tight year.
“Coaches cannot stand still, and they do not like the fact that they have to be in their home and office all the time. We want to see players training and having some action with them.
“I guess this is a process that we have to learn and go through. I have done a lots of studies on the game, and look to bring that into the team.”
The national team were supposed to take on the United Arab Emirates away on Oct 8, host Vietnam on Oct 13 before completing their fixtures against Thailand in Bangkok on Nov 17.
Malaysia started their Group G campaign with a 3-2 win over Indonesia in Jakarta (Sept 5) followed by two straight defeats – 1-2 to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Bukit Jalil (Sept 10) and 0-1 to Vietnam in Hanoi (Oct 10).
However, they bounced back at home with a 2-1 win over fancied Thailand on Nov 14 and a 2-0 victory over Indonesia on Nov 19 to take second place with nine points from five matches.
Vietnam lead the group with 11 points while Thailand are third with eight.
Asked if he would have friendlies and a centralised camp after the Malaysian League season ends, Cheng Hoe said he would discuss that with FAM and see the next step for the national team.
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) secretary-general Stuart Ramalingam said the planned friendly against Bahrain on Oct 2 and the idea of centralised camp will be discussed internally for now.