Give Kim time to finish the job
Published on: Friday, April 05, 2024
By: James Wong
THERE have been rumours going around in recent days that Harimau Malaya head coach Kim Pan-gon and his team are set to quit their posts.
However, it was quickly quashed by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president Datuk Hamidin Amin who came out to deny the report, and so did Kim himself.
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In my personal opinion, we should let Kim to continue his role to lead the national team. He has gone on the journey since 2022 and his contract will only end in 2025.
Under him, the team has done reasonably well by winning a lot of friendlies along the way. This has actually got the fans excited and given hope that this team will go on to achieve much more.
The South Korean is also fortunate to have a pool of naturalised and heritage players to fit in with our very own local players.
Let’s give him the time to finish the job and see the end result. He is always ready to come forward to take the blame for the team’s poor results as seen during the AFC Asian Cup competition in Doha last year.
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We failed to progress to the knockout stage after managing only one point from the group stage and the single point was earned from the 3-3 draw with South Korea.
It was a great test for the players and the result was a remarkable feat considering South Korea is a top team in the international arena.
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After the good showing, Harimau Malaya even received accolades from the South Koreans and the poor performance in the early stage was quickly forgiven by some of the critics.
Then came the World Cup Qualification AFC tie, we went down 0-2 to Oman away in Muscat and again with the same scoreline in the return leg here at the Bukit Jalil Stadium.
Once again Kim took the blame and insisted that it is not over yet for our quest to the next round.
He is right not to throw in the towel with two more matches to go.
The first is away to Kyrgyzstan on June 6 followed by the home tie against Chinese Taipei on June 11.
We are only three points adrift of Kyrgyzstan and Oman who are at the top two positions at the moment so there is still a chance for us to progress.
So let’s give Kim faith and trust. I am sure he will rectify the team’s weaknesses ahead of the two important games and at the same time hopefully the players will rise to the occasion when the time comes.
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