Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia will play in the 2018 AFC U23 Championship later this month having qualified for the Finals for the first time, as the nation seeks to build on an upturn in the performances of their youth teams that bodes well for the future.
Drawn to face Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in Group C, Ong and his team will face a tough challenge in their debut appearance, but Ong is taking an optimistic stance ahead of the Finals.
“It’s good to qualify for the first time and for us in some ways it is a matter of gaining exposure and experience,” says Ong, who worked with the senior national team before taking over the Under-23 side last year.
“Whatever we do in China, we can look at the weaknesses in our game and we can learn from them.
“But this is not only about the Under-23 team, but all of the youth teams in Malaysia. The youth group tournaments are always important and all of our teams have qualified for the AFC tournaments recently, so that shows we are making good progress.
“But we have to make sure we build up from here. If we develop our teams in this way, we can go forward.”
www.the-afc.com/en/more/photo/malaysiau23_team.html
www.the-afc.com/en/more/photo/malaysiau23_celebrate.html
