A nice welcome and a view from Malaysia « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
Introduction by Walter Broeckx
Arsenal traveling to Malysia is something that doesn’t happen every year. Certainly not the last years as we mostly went to the hills of Austria to hear the sound of music. And then we played a few local teams there which we didn’t know.
But now we have gone on the plane to Asia and will see another warming up to the season. And apparently it is warm over there. But one thing stays the same: the opponents are unknown. But we at Untold are very lucky with our readership that is spread around the world. And our local correspondent (if I may call him like that and in this case I think we can) told us a few things that we over here in Europe don’t know about football in Malaysia.
For me the most exciting thing about the games coming up in the Asia tour is the fact that we finally will be able to see our boys back where they belong and I don’t mean in the transfer headlines of the rubbish media but on the green green football pitch. That is if the colour of grass in Malaysia is also green.
Looking forward to the young ones that will get their chance, looking forward to those returning from injury, looking forward to some new faces like Ryo and Jenkinson. Oh please bring it on and now some things I didn’t know about football in Malaysia and thanks to Brickfield Gunners we can say a few things in the pub or at work that will make us look as if we know a bit of the world. So thank you for this and now let us just pass the word to our regular reader Brickfield Gunners
By Brickfield Gunners
Selamat datang ke Malaysia , Arsenal . Welcome to Malaysia , Arsenal .
As you touch down in Kuala Lumpur ( KL) ,my hometown , you would no doubt be impressed by our beautiful airport and and the very impressive KL skyline , especially the Petronas Twin Towers, which used to be the tallest buildings in the world but now have been surpassed.
So too has our football – in the seventies we were at par with South Korea , Japan and the Middle East teams but have gradually overtaken us and we are now ranked 144 in Fifa ‘s latest rankings(29/06/2011).
Here is a brief history of Malaysian Football :-
1962 -Asian Games bronze medallist ( behind India & S.Korea )
1972 – qualified for Munich Olympics ( after beating Japan & S.Korea ), where we lost to W.Germany 3-0 after a goalless 1st half ; beat USA and lost to Morocco .
1974- Asian Games bronze medallist in Tehran ,Iran ( behind Iran & Israel { yes ,kids ,Israel was one grouped under Asia and did play in Iran}, where in the 8-3 loss to Israel
Syed Ahmad scored a superb goal by beating 5 players and imho , worthy of a goal-of the season . If a clip exists ,I would be grateful if someone with the know-how uploads it.)
1980 – qualified for the Moscow Olympics after beating S.Korea , but did not participate due to the USA led boycott.
1991- Was for me the lowest point in Malaysian football when the team lost to the Philippines 1-0 in Manila at the South -East Asian Games .The Filipinos are not famous for their football and this result was a big shock to us as it was to England when they lost to USA back in the sixties.They were suspicions of match fixing which culminated in
1994 ,when a bribery scandal of massive proportion erupted and hundreds of players were called for investigation and a large number were banned for life and the beautiful game was no more .I ‘ve not followed the local game since and the game I watched must be more than 20 years ago.
My team Selangor , dominated for long till horror of horrors -they were relegated due to mismanagement and political interference . Among those who played for us were Tony Cottee , Chris Kiwomya and Niall Quinn (who played 1 game ).
David Rocastle played for the Sabah in memory serves me. Kevin Keegan was a guest player for the Malaysian Tigers in the late 80s or early 90s.
The game of late has seen a resurgence and is in a upward popularity trend after the team beat neighbours Indonesia in a regional tournament but its a long road back.
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