Last year, the Blue Cannonballs, who are based in Kuala Lumpur, saw Malaysia grouped in Group D alongside Oman, Kirghizia and Taiwan Province in the second phase of the 2026 World Entry Tournament. In the second phase of the seeding, Malaysia were placed in the third seed, which meant that advancing to the third phase was passive and very challenging. In addition, the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament also includes the 2027 Asian Cup qualification tournament, making these six matches extremely important and focused to come out on top.
After the game schedule was announced, I looked at the times of Malaysia's three home games and personally decided to arrange to be sure to be there for this Malaysia vs. Chinese Taipei game. After all, even though I live in Malaysia, I have already shared so many articles in the Sports Vision section. I still want to watch and support Taiwanese soccer matches and then share them with you. That's why I decided to go live to the World Asia 2026 Stage 2 match.
If a student lives in Malaysia, buying any soccer tickets is easy. Basically, you can go to the ticketing website whenever there is a local match of the Malaysian Football Premier League or the Malaysian National Team. TICKETHOTLINE to check and buy tickets. For the second stage of Malaysia's final round against Chinese Taipei, Group D matches were divided into several categories including Open Adult Seats (Home), Open Children's Seats (Home), Open Adult Seats (Home), Grandstand Seats and High Quality Seats. There was an urge to buy high quality seats, but I ended up just buying bleacher seats.
In the second phase of the qualifying tournament, Malaysia won two straight matches from the start. In the first match, they played the Kyrgyz national team at home and won 4-3. In the second round, they traveled to Taiwan Province to visit Chinese Taipei and took down the Chinese team one-nil to win. But by March 2024, the second round of home and away matches against Oman was lost 2-0, directly changing the promotion situation from active to passive.
Last week, facing a crucial battle for promotion, the Malaysian national team traveled to Kirghiz for a fifth round match. Kirghiz started the first half on record before Malaysia equalized the game before the end of the first half through an own goal. In the second half, Malaysia survived the hosts' attack with an incomplete squad to hold on to a point. Despite the one-point draw, second-placed Kirghiz dominated the 2W1D2L with 10 points and six goals, leaving Malaysia in third place under seven points. Malaysia need to advance straight to 7 points in 2, apart from beating Taiwan Province and Kirghiz, losing big in Oman by 20.
Malaysia called up 25 players for this round and two matches. Unfortunately, five of Malaysia's star players didn't make it to this match such as Darren , Taiwan Province vs. Lok are out due to injuries, along with Malaysian soccer number one Arif. Aiman , Syafiq Ahmad and Romel Morales have been placed on the injury list. For another notable Malaysian player, Faisal had a great game against China. Halim is still not able to return to the green field due to a vicious attack. As a result, only Safawii in both matches. Rasid (who joined Portuguese Premier League side Portimão Man) is an experienced attacker among the Malaysian homegrown players, which makes Malaysia's attacking efficiency still worrying. However, in the back four, Cools has been called up to Cools. （The (Dion Cools) group leader led mixed-race Matthewhew??? Davies, Dominic Tan and Corbin - in Malaysia's back half - to teammates such as Ong.
When he arrived at Malaysian captain Kurth, who now plays for Thai Premier League champions Buriram United, fresh from winning the Thai Premier League title, as the team's right back. Although SOFASCORES' stat score is only 7.07, he deserves recognition for his defensive efficiency and consistency as he has scored more than seven points in a single game in his last ten matches. In his last game against Kyrgyz, Coors excelled on both the offensive and defensive ends of the right side of the field and did not concede on the right side of the field, except for a number of forwards. In the 38th minute, a free-kick from the left by Malaysia into the box led to Kurth recapturing the top of the net after two opposing players tackled him.
As for the Chinese men's soccer team, Taiwan's legendary captain Chen Bo-liang will end his career with the national team after the Malaysia match. Apart from captain Chen Bo-liang, naturalized players of mixed-race American-Taiwanese descent such as Chen Tzu-tien, She Chi-lin and Hsu Nien-jin, such as Costa Rica-born An Yi-en and Swedish-born Yue Ming-feng are worth the attention of Malaysian players. Personally, I think the most notable player from the Chinese men's soccer team is Chen Hao-Wei, who is now playing for Qingdao Red Lions in the Chinese First Division in mainland China. 32-year-old Chen Hao-Wei was one of the first Taiwanese soccer players to join the professional soccer league in mainland China. After that, although he only went to Spain to look for opportunities, he eventually returned to Taiwan Province. In 2023, Chen Hao-Wei was once again invited by a team in the Central League, and now he plays for Qingdao Red Lions in the 2024 season contributing three goals and four assists, helping the team to temporarily rank eighth in the Central League.
