Little to separate our gatekeepers

05/10/2001

SAIFUL Azhar Afandi, 20, and Mohamed Firdaus Razali, 18, both live inSerdang, Selangor, and both are gatekeepers of the National Junior Squadin Hobart for the Junior World Cup on Oct 9-21. They are the best of friends when off the pitch and have been literallyeating, sleeping and playing together for months. The similarities end there unless you count assistant coach ZulkifliAbbas, who played as a goalkeeper in the first Junior World Cup inVersailles in 1979 where Malaysia finished fourth. Zulkifli has been polishing the duo well and feels they have almost thesame qualities. Very little separates them. "Saiful has been with the squad for the last two years and saw action inthe Junior Asia Cup in May where he did well, together with S. Kumar (whois with the seniors now), to keep the scores down and Malaysia finishedthird. But he is not vocal. "Firdaus can command the backline and is loud and clear with hisinstructions," said Zulkifli. That is what separates them, Saiful has more experience but is the shytype and goes about his business without bothering the defenders muchwhile Firdaus calls the shots at the backline. "Very little separates them and that is good for our campaign in Hobart.We can depend on both because they have a `safe pair of legs'," saidZulkifli. Right until the time when coach Yahya Atan left for Hobart on Wednesday,he was still undecided about who will play in the first-11 and knowingthat, Saiful and Firdaus have been kept on their toes with a promise thatonly the best will make the grade. Which means they will have to go all out to impress the coach when theyplay a friendly against Canada on Saturday. Saiful has seen more action at the international level than Firdaus, whoonly joined the juniors about six months ago because Timothy Lopez wasdropped from the squad. "I have more to prove than Saiful because I came into the picture late.Saiful has a slight edge because he has seen more international actionwhile I am still a little nervous when a match begins. But once I getmyself going, I try not to let anyone score against Malaysia," saidFirdaus. Zulkifli, who played alongside Foo Keat Seong, Stephen van Huizen andCollin sta Maria, in the 1979 Junior World Cup, has ranked them as amongthe best in the region and, whoever makes the grades, will have to makesure he lives up to it.