KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian women’s football squad may be short on preparation, but they’re definitely not short of determination for the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers in Palestine next month.
Senior player Steffi Sarge Kaur Sergeant Singh said they were all focused on their mission to achieve a favourable result in the qualifiers although they only started their quarantine-based centralised training at Wisma FAM on Saturday (Aug 21).
The 33-year-old, who received her first call-up to the national team after a decade, added that she was excited to be back in the squad, especially with so many new faces and young guns.
“I am very excited to be playing and training with them (new players), I can’t wait actually. I want to see how the combination of youngsters and seniors mix it up on the field… I think everyone representing the national team wants to win a tournament for the nation.
“So, my goal is to do my very best and also for the team to achieve something (positive) in Palestine. Our main focus is to give 100 per cent in training and on match days,” she said in a video conference today.
Sabahan Eva Olivianie Antinus, meanwhile, hopes they would be able to do better than their last outing at the 2019 SEA Games in Manila, where the team lost to the Philippines and Myanmar with identical 5-0 scores in Group A.
“Every player must feel confident (because) if you lack confidence from the very beginning, the results will not be great. My hope is that we, at least, play better than our last game,” said the 20-year-old.
The Malaysian women have been drawn in Group H of the qualifiers and are set to face 2018 semi-finalists Thailand on Sept 19 and hosts Palestine on Sept 22. Both matches will be played at the Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium in Al-Ram, Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, head coach Jacob Joseph said he would drop three players from the 28-member training squad after this Saturday’s (Aug 28) training before the team shift their training camp to the National Sports Council on Sunday, where he will finalise the 23 players before leaving for the qualifiers.
“We know Thailand are a very strong team, so we’ll try to work on damage control to avoid a huge defeat. Against Palestine, we have a 50-50 chance. I have seen videos of the Palestine team. Although they’ve been training for the past two months, we are confident that we can give them a fight,” he said.
The 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup Finals will be held in India from Jan 20-Feb 6. – Bernama
