FIFA Ranking List 2008

Fifa released its latest ranking list.

African Nations Cup host Ghana went up to 14th place, while champions Egypt are now in 29th.

















Occupying the summit is Argentina, followed by Brazil, while World Cup winners Italy dropped to third.

Our beloved Malaysia dropped another place to 165th. "Adoi!"
















Pak Lah's dream of Malaysia winning the World Cup is best forgotten. We can't even beat Singapore, Indonesia or Thailand regularly.

We struggled. Yes you heard me, our footballers s-t-r-u-g-g-l-e-d to beat Vietnam & The Philipines during the SEA Games.

There was a time when I enjoyed watching our national team. There was Mokhtar Dahari, Santokh Singh, Soh Chin Aun "The Towkay", "Spiderman" Arumugam, Jamaluddin Norbit, Dollah Salleh, Azizul Abu Haniffah, and many more from the 70s & 80s.

But now, most of the players are young guns in their 20s, who are more interested in looking good while on the pitch while wearing the latest Nike or Adidas white/blue/orange boots. Yet, they haven't even mastered the most basic of football techniques. What's the point of having a specially designed jersey by Nike if you can't play properly?

Have you seen our national team in action?

The players can't even trap the ball properly when receiving it in the air.

They are incapable of passing the ball to a team mate who stands more than 10 feet away.

They can't dribble properly or take on defenders. "Malu man"

And this is the most common, the players can't score clinically even when the chance is clear cut. If there are 10 clear cut chances to score, our players can't even knock 5 of it into the net. "Seriously bengang to watch"

Did you also notice that our national players constantly run out of steam? They don't have the stamina to last for the full 90 minutes. 'Ginseng-powered' Park ji-Sung would be running circles around them.

Bukit Jalil National Stadium is supposedly our best stadium, along with the Shah Alam Stadium.


But have you seen the condition of the pitch? Try kicking a ball along the ground & count how many times it bobbles up & down. This does not do our national team any favours.

I remembered during 2002. Brazil came over and played a warm up match before they flew to Korea & Japan for the World Cup Finals. We hosted the World No.1 football team with sand filled-grass pitch at Bukit Jalil Stadium. What an embarrassment. Isn't there any allocation in the budget for maintenance of the grass?

By the way, Brazil hammered us 4-0 & went on to become World Cup Champions that year. They played with so much pride, passion & love for the colours of their nation. How I wish our national players would play with that much passion & spirit. It's not that our boys can't, they just aren't doing it.

I guess Malaysian football is destined to be in the doldrums for many many more years. Until FAM get its act together and the national players show improvement & change, nobody can blame me & thousands of Malaysians for opting to watch foreign football instead.

Malaysian football can only 'menang sorak' for the so-called 'Super League' & 'Premier League' but 'standard tak bole pakai'.

pictures courtesy of:

www.the-diplomat.com
www.nst.com.my
www.blog.kievukraine.info
www.football-wallpapers.com