By Jugjet Singh
jugjet@nstp.com.my
THE saying “coach knows best” will be put to a severe test by South African Paul Revington after he performed CPR on six former internationals and drafted them into his training squad.
When he announced their names at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday, it was like watching a re-run of the television series ‘Combat!’
(Flashback: The show covered the grim lives of a squad of American soldiers fighting the Germans in France during World War II, and starred Rick Jason as platoon leader Second Lieutenant Gil Hanley and Vic Morrow as Sergeant ‘Chip’ Saunders).
In the series, Morrow would take seven to ten soldiers and go into battle against, sometimes, with a battalion of Germans and only lose one or two rookies and return victorious with his veterans for another assignment.
Revington has selected his 30-man squad for training, but he must choose wisely for the Champions Challenge I in Argentina on Nov 24-Dec 2.
Chua Boon Huat, Jiwa Mohan, Jivan Mohan, Sallehin Ghani, Ismail Abu and Amin Rahim are all veterans of more than 100 caps and have seen action at very high level in the past.
But they were not selected or opted out of national duty for a motley of reasons by previous coaches, only to find themselves back on active duty under ‘Sergeant’ Revington.
The South African has very little time to turn the clock on some of the veterans and make them into hardened soldiers again, and head for Argentina for the first Challenge of his career as Malaysia’s coach.
But the coach did indicate that he was not willing to be taken for a ride by giving his soldiers six months to train and play before evaluating their performance again, unlike the previous regime which gave aging stars unlimited time to embarrass themselves before limping out overweight and injured, on their own accord.
Revington also showed he is serious about his Argentina mission and will send goalkeepers S. Kumar and Roslan Jamaluddin, and a yet to be named junior goalkeeper, to the Netherlands on Nov 9 for a 10-day training stint with a recognised coach to fine-tune their game before the duo head for Argentina.
The rest of the team will train full-time under him after the Razak Cup, and 18 (including two goalkeepers) would be finalised for the Argentina onslaught which not only offers ranking points but also a chance to move into the Champion Trophy bracket if they win gold.
And it was evident the coach was already in combat mood, and has put on his full assault gear right after naming his trainees yesterday but he would need more than a ‘gung ho’ attitude from his charges to make a worldwide impression in the Champions Challenge I.
The countdown started yesterday for Revington, and before he knows it, it will be time for the Asia Cup and the World Series next year where much sought-after tickets to the World Cup would be on offer for his mixed army.
A bungle in Argentina would not cause a ripple but there is no room for his mixture of youth and veteran army to yet again fail to advance to the World Cup stage.
Note: All eight teams in the Champions Challenge I advance to the quarter-finals so Malaysia need to win only one match to be in the top-four bracket.
