PETALING JAYA: India head coach, Igor Stimac (pix) admitted that he was somewhat ‘jealous’ of the wonderful work by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) in recent years to strengthen the Harimau Malaya squad and the team’s recent track record.
However, though Stimac who has monitored the Harimau Malaya’s performance since March is aware of the Malaysian side’s prowess, he aims to win the Merdeka Tournament for the first time.
Stimac said he was impressed with the way FAM improved the team including having naturalised players in the squad and developing homegrown talent using proper football academies equipped with basic skills.
“Using naturalised players had definitely helped the team to improve quickly. We are looking forward to using naturalised players in the near future but for now, we are trying to use what’s available to help our team grow, obviously in 2023,” he said at a pre-match press conference ahead of the first match of the 2023 Merdeka Tournament against Malaysia here today.
In the meantime, Stimac tried to play a psychological game ahead of their first match against Malaysia in the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil, tomorrow as he admitted that Kim Pan Gon’s side had an edge.
As such, the former West Ham United player hoped his side would overcome Malaysia on home turf although on paper Malaysia at 134 in the world ranking are much lower than India at (102).
While admitting playing in front of the home fans will favour Harimau Malaya, Stimac said Malaysia’s unbeaten record in six friendly matches after recording four wins and one draw since March including against Syria (90th ranking) 2-2, and China (81st ranking) 1-1, last September is something to watch out for.
Meanwhile, centreback Anwar Ali, believed that they will do well to reach the final against Tajikistan this Tuesday.
“I don’t know much about Malaysia as this is the first time I will play against them,” he said.
Tajikistan, received a ‘bye’ following Palestine’s withdrawal from the 42nd edition at the eleventh hour.
Palestine had to forgo the Merdeka Tournament due to the tense situation in their country at the moment. -Bernama