AFF Cup - Malaysian victory, what's next?

In my earlier posting World Cup 2010 Tuesday, 6 July 2010, I commented regarding the condition of Malaysian soccer in the world arena. The posting was made a few months after the Malaysian team won the SEA Games Gold medal and even after Malaysia won the most recent AFF Cup, my comment still stands. I mentioned in my earlier posting that to be in the running in Asia top five (to be vying for the World Cup Asian qualifiers) and in the World Cup (only top four Asian teams and the fifth team through AFC/OFC playoff will qualify), Malaysian soccer requires four elements to be successful:

1. Vision
2. Determination
3. Action
4. Fulfillment

FAM and the players need a vision for themselves. The vision for FAM can be to promote professionalism in its organization and sustain a successful national leagues and a formidable national team with layers upon layers of potential successors. The players in turn may have a vision to be top notch professional football players plying their career in Europe just like Park Ji Sung of Korea, Imamoto of Japan, Sun Jihai of China and Ali Al Habshi of Oman in the English Premier league, Mahdavikia and Karimi of Iran in the German Bundesliga and Nakamura of Japan in the Scotland League, just to name a few.

Both FAM and the players must have the determination to fulfill all its vision. FAM needs to organize a more flamboyant domestic Premier League, M-League, Malaysia and FA Cup that will bring back the fans into the stadium, just like what it was in the 1980's. With more fans in the stadium, FAM's coffers will be filled up not only by match tickets but also by sponsors who will try to outdo each other to become the main sponsor or part of the sponsorship team. The players as well should be more determined to dish out a consistent and sustainable performance in every match that they play. With a consistent and sustainable performance, their value in the regional and global market will increase and they in turn will be able to maintain a rewarding career in soccer.

All these require action by the FAM and the players. To be fair to the fans, if all of us expect the fan to be with the team all the time, the Malaysian team needs to be consistent in their game. Winning and losing are part of the game, however the way the team perform even with a loss or a draw, fighting hard and smart will surely melt the fans' heart in favour of the team.

Look at Vietnam after they were trailing by two goals in the first leg of the AFF Semi-Final match at Bukit Jalil, the team fought hard to try to score and win the second leg at home. Their fans and supporters were behind them all the way with full confidence that the team will put their best to win the game.

Likewise Indonesia, they were trailing by three goals in the first leg of the AFF Final at Bukit Jalil. The atmosphere right after the loss was so ecstatic. The Indonesian fans used the internet by twittering massively that the Indonesian team's loss was due to the insignificant laser ray on their goalkeeper. Then the Indonesian media hyped the issue further by making it their front page news three days in a row until the second leg match. Not to be left out, even the Indonesian leaders followed suit with low rated remarks in the fanatical frenzy.

On the match day, the Gelora Bung Karno stadium was pack, the fans who were following the match via giant screens outside the stadium were almost equal in numbers to the number of spectators in the stadium and no fans from Malaysia except for the Malaysian media and VIPS could be present in the stadium.

Maradona, the Argentinian coach and a former renowned World Cup player once said during the 2010 World Cup, "Latin American soccer will never overcome the European soccer, what we can do is to develop our youngsters for them to be skilled in soccer. Let them ply their professional soccer career in European leagues where there are abundant of big monies. When the World Cup turns up, we bring them back and let them play for their country with love and pride to win the World Cup". This is a statement full of vision, determination, action and fulfillment. Achieving fulfillment requires a clear vision, strong determination and consistent action.

So the next step of fulfillment for Malaysian soccer is for some of the players to ply their trade in Europe. Playing for the Indonesian or Vietnamese clubs will not bring the desired outcome that will bring us up several notches over these countries in AFF. Look at Bambang Pamungkas, he was playing for Selangor once and he is still a player good only for this region.

To be able to outdo or even match the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Saudi and the Iranian teams, we need to send out as many MALAYSIAN players as we can. Send out Safee Sali, Norshahrul, Safiq Rahim, S Kunalan, Mahalli Jasuli, Mohd Sabree Abu, and Khairul Fahmi Che Mat to play in Europe. With more of them playing abroad, the better it will be for our soccer's future. In the void, we will have new and upcoming star players who will try to outperform those players so that they may also be able to be noticed and selected.

We need to start this now. Once we sustain this cycle then we will reach the apex of fulfillment, that will be when the World Cup is won by Malaysia (and we probably will have public holiday for a week :).