PETALING JAYA, May 31 — A win alone is not enough for national head coach Kim Pan Gon in facing his former team, Hong Kong, in Tier 1 international friendly match at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, tomorrow night.
After guiding the Harimau Malaya squad in several matches including the most recent 4-0 win against Brunei last Friday, Pan Gon wanted his team to win with honour.
The South Korean coach said there are two ways to win a match, namely winning through commendable performances and winning with a disappointing pattern of play.
“We choose to win (by being) proactive, dominant, passionate and dynamic. These are the kind of things we want to give to the fans. That’s more important to me. So we are looking for a win tomorrow with that kind of football,” he said at a pre-match press conference at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya here, today.
Speaking about the opponents which he coached from 2009 to 2010 and 2012 to 2017, the 53-year-old coach said Hong Kong had similarities with Turkmenistan, thus tomorrow’s game would be the best warm-up match before starting their 2023 Asian Cup Qualifier campaign.
In fact, Pan Gon said he was excited for tomorrow’s clash as he mentioned his team had a good preparation since they gathered together on May 19.
“I think in the last 10 days our players have done a great job and until today I feel very good, so hopefully tomorrow that energy and passion could be translated into a good game for the fans. That’s my concern,” he said.
Tomorrow’s match is the last friendly before the national squad start the 2023 Asian Cup Qualifiers at the National Stadium against Turkmenistan on June 8, Bahrain (June 11) and Bangladesh on June 14.
For the record, Malaysia drew 1-1 and lost 0-2 in the last two meetings against Hong Kong in the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers which were then coached by Pan Gon. — Bernama
