Chelsea VS Malaysia All-Stars XI
FIT YOUNG CHALLENGE FOR BLUES
In a game live and exclusive on Chelsea TV, Felipe Scolari's chosen line-up will play a Malaysian Select XI predominantly from the Under 23 age category.
Chelsea trained yesterday evening in the impressive Shah Alam stadium in front of several thousand supporters. Twenty-four hours later a much larger crowd is expected to see how the locals fare against top European opposition.
'Chelsea is such a big club, we know the history of it, and all the big four teams in the English Premier League have a big crowd behind them here,' reports Hajee Rawop, senior producer with Astra, the TV channel that will be broadcasting the match in Malaysia and has the Premier League rights.
Rawop anticipates nine of the Malaysian starting 11 will be Under 23s with the remaining two both senior players. There will be no foreigners in the team.
'We are starting the rebuild and this will be the future Malaysia national side as long as they do not disband the team like they do every time they go out of a tournament.
'They had three warm-up matches before this Chelsea game. They played Indonesia and drew 1-1. They played the Chinese Olympic team when the national coach fielded mostly Under 23 players but a few senior players and lost 4-0. Recently they drew 1-1 with India in India.'
In that last game, Rawop recalls, Malaysia looked strong in the last 20 minutes and it will be fit opposition Chelsea play tonight.
While Chelsea are working on fitness, the locals are fully-up and running. Their season started back in November and will end on August 23, ready for the commencement of Ramadan.
One of the older players in today's team, Hairuddin Omar, scored against Chelsea in Kuala Lumpur five years ago after some unconvincing goalkeeping by Marco Ambrosio.
Rawop picks another couple of names to watch out for.
'The captain, Shukor Adan, plays in central midfield, mostly as the holding midfielder. Safee Sali is a good player and will probably wear number 10.
'Syed Adney is a goalkeeper who was born in Liverpool and had a two-week trial with Bournemouth. He may not play as a first choice.'
Asked to select the Chelsea names the Malaysian fans are most looking forward to seeing in the flesh, he chooses a similar list to ones heard in China.
'Lampard, Terry and Ballack are the biggest names here.'
To see if Michael Ballack does return to the side today, or new-signing Deco continues his outstanding form, tune into Chelsea TV. Kick-off is 1.45pm UK time.
Bagi komitmen lebih 100 peratus
Oleh Mohd Fadzrie Hazis
fadzrie@bharian.com.my
________________________________________________________________
MENYEDARI Chelsea lawan yang berada pada tahap lebih tinggi, kapten skuad kebangsaan Shukor Adan menuntut tonggak senior dalam skuad kebangsaan menggunakan segala pengalaman yang ada apabila berdepan kelab Inggeris itu malam ini.
Bagi Shukor, pertemuan dengan kelab gergasi seperti Chelsea pasti menjanjikan laluan sukar buat skuad negara dan setiap pemain harus bersedia memberikan komitmen lebih 100 peratus walaupun ia sekadar perlawanan persahabatan.
“Memang pertemuan ini sukar bagi kami kerana mereka berada dalam kelas berbeza daripada kami. Tetapi ini bukan kali pertama skuad negara berdepan pasukan berkelas dunia.
“Selain saya, masih terdapat beberapa pemain senior seperti Norhafiz (Zamani Misbah) dan Hairuddin (Omar) yang pernah beraksi berdepan Brazil, Manchester United dan juga Chelsea sendiri dari 2001 hingga 2003.
“Bagi saya, setiap pemain senior harus memainkan peranan mereka esok (malam ini), mereka tahu apa yang bakal dihadapi dan juga harus bersedia membimbing pemain-pemain muda lain dalam situasi tertekan,” kata Shukor.
Pemain tengah Selangor itu turut mengharapkan pemain muda seperti Amirulhadi Zainal dan Aidil Zafuan Abdul Radzak tidak mudah cemas apabila berada dalam situasi genting dan mengambil pengalaman daripada pertemuan dengan Chelsea.
Shukor juga menegaskan moral pemain kini berada pada tahap terbaik, dengan setiap pemain kini bersaing merebut tempat dalam kesebelasan utama untuk pertemuan dengan Chelsea malam ini.
No comments:
Post a Comment