Players still have faith in winless Vingada
The national coach from Portugal has now presided over three defeats and one draw.
Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Hong Kong did help to break the sequence of defeats and gave Malaysia their first point in Group B but the feeling after the match was one of missed opportunities.
Before the match had kicked off at Hang Jebat Stadium, Lebanon and North Korea had already played a 2-2 draw in the group’s other match. That presented Malaysia with a chance to climb to second spot in the group, had they managed to do the job against Hong Kong.
In a frantic match in which both sides had plenty of goal-scoring chances, Malaysia played marginally better compared to the defeat to Lebanon back in June.
Francisco ‘Kiko’ Insa brought about some steel to the midfield while Darren Lok had a decent cameo up front as the lone striker.
Malaysia collected six yellow cards in the match, four of which went to Rizal Ghazali and Aidil Zafuan. The performance of referee Christopher Beath was put under the spotlight and the home camp weren’t happy with what they saw.
“I don’t want to criticise the referee but there were a few calls that were dubious. Overall the referee was decent but some of the decisions he made did make us feel like we weren’t treated fairly,” said Hafizul Hakim today.
The raw emotions rumbled on after the final whistle as the Malaysian players and Vingada could be seen trudging towards the match officials to give them a piece of their mind.
An angry Aidil felt he was harshly done by and called for more stringent valuation from Asian Football Confederation (AFC) when selecting match officials for matches.
“We have given everything to achieve a win but in the last minute when the referee gave a penalty against us, it made me lose control of my anger.
“But such is football and we need to accept the decision. I accept that I was also at fault and I’ll have to wait and see what the decision from AFC is if there’s a report from the referee.
“But AFC perhaps need to look at the record and performance of the referees. If the players can be suspended, why not the same review and judgement on the referee?” said Aidil.
The Johor Darul Ta’zim centre back also called for judgement not to be passed on Vingada yet, despite their current winless run.
“If we see from the results, there hasn’t been any win with the new coach. But our game has changed. In football, no one can achieve instant result.
“Football is not magic. We cannot judge him over these few games. He understands the players and we are comfortable to work with him,” Aidil added.
It was a sentiment that was echoed by Darren as well. The 26-year-old firmly believes that Vingada is the right appointment and heaped praise on the way the coach has presented himself with the entire team.
“I think coach Nelo is still the right man for the job. From what I’ve seen, everything leading into this game has been near perfect. He’s got lots of experience and he’s very encouraging,” said Darren.
As the players’ faith in the coach remains intact, Vingada’s credentials will be put to the test when Malaysia face formidable North Korea in Pyongyang on Oct 5.
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