KL2017 Women's Football: Lack Of Individual Skills, Exposure Cost Malaysia - Coach

SHAH ALAM (Selangor, Malaysia), Aug 18 (Bernama) -- Lack of individual skills and international exposure was cited as the reason why Malaysia got a 5-0 drubbing by Myanmar in women’s football in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games at Stadium UiTM Shah Alam, Thursday night. National women’s football squad head coach Mohd Asyraf Fong Abdullah admiitted that the two teams were worlds apart more so with Myamar’s world ranking at 45 and Malaysia in 80th place. "The fact that this team was just newly formed showed, we can see the indivdual skills of the Myanmar players are at a competely different level. "Also our mistake in gifting the first goal (own goal) to Myanmar. It changed the face of the game… if the mistake did not happen, I am sure we could have given them a better fight,” he told the post match press conference. He added that the team would need much international exposure to be on par with Thailand and Vietnam. Meanwhile, Myanmar’s head coach, Roger Reijners was extremely delighted with the splendid performance by his charges especially in the first half. He also praised the Malaysian team for giving a stiff competition in the first half. "They really improved compared to the previous meeting and credit should be given to the Malaysian players who gave us a tough run and I would say that Malaysia have a few talented players," he said. -- BERNAMA