“It’s motivation time at the camp right now because as everybody can see, some of the players can play much better than what they have been dishing out so far.
“We still have two more matches to look forward to and I believe there will be better all-round performance as we are still in the hunt to finish as high as number eight in the World Cup,” said Malaysian coach K. Dharmaraj.
As for Hafifi Hafiz, who received a kung-fu kick in the head from the England goalkeeper, he will be out for at least eight weeks after he went into a concussion.
MALAYSIA are in dire straits, after letting in 12 goals in three matches, and the indications are that the will nosedive to the bottom of the World Cup pool at the Hague, Nether lands.
After nightmarish 4-0 and 6-2 whippings by Australia and Belgium respectively, coach K. Dharmaraj’s men played another listless match and lost 2-0 to England.
Razie Rahim is the only player to have scored in the World Cup, while promising forwards Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin, Faizal Saari, Ismail Abu and Fitri Saari keep on shooting blanks.
However, they still have two more matches against India today, and Spain on Monday to avoid the wooden spoonists title in the World Cup.
India, who drew 1-1 with Spain, only have one point after three matches while the Spanish have two points, after snatching a draw against England.
And if Malaysia manage to pull off upsets against India and Spain, they might just finish fourth in the group and play in the seventh-eight classification match.
The World Cup format will see the top two teams in each group play in the semi-finals, while third team in Group A will play the third team in Group B for the fifth-sixth positions.
The silver lining for Malaysia is that their matches against Belgium and Australia are over, while India still has Aus tralia, while Spain have Belgium to contend with.
The writing is on the wall, as only goalkeeper S. Kumar has been playing to his form in all three matches, second goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin has yet to be fielded, while all 16 other players have been playing only 50 percent of their capabilities.
The pathetic defensive record stands out like a sore thumb at the Hague, as the weakest team in Group B South Africa has only let in nine goals after two matches.
And if Malaysia collapse against India and Spain, they are most likely to play South Africa for the 11-12th spot in the crossover.
MALAYSIA’S World Cup Fixtures (Malaysian time) -- Today: v India (8.30pm); Monday: v Spain (8.30pm).
GROUP A
P W D L F A Pts
AUSTRALIA 3 3 0 0 10 1 9
ENGLAND 3 2 1 0 5 2 7
BELGIUM 3 2 0 1 10 7 6
SPAIN 3 0 2 1 2 5 2
INDIA 3 0 1 2 4 6 1
MALAYSIA 3 0 0 3 2 12 0
