With the autumn breeze in the air, September's international tournament is in full swing, and a chilly reporter is on the front lines to bring us an exciting showdown. China will face Malaysia and Syria, and the naturalized players in the lineups of these two teams are especially notable.
Malaysia: Kim Jikun's "bus" strategy
Malaysia's head coach, that old friend of Chinese soccer, Jin Jiekun, is once again on the coaching bench. He is leading a team of 26 players, half of whom are naturalized players, seven of whom are from China. In addition, there are also naturalized players from many countries, and their strength is even better than before.
Last year, Kim Jee Koon helped the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) make a historic breakthrough with his outstanding coaching ability. He lost only 4 out of 23 matches and not only led the team back to the Asian Cup final round, but also made a breakthrough in the Southeast Asian Cup quarterfinals by relying on non-starters and naturalized players.
Last year in the King Thai Cup, Malaysia drew with Thailand and Tajikistan and lost the final on penalties. Earlier this year, Thailand won by a narrow goal in the first round of the Southeast Asia Cup semifinals. Since March, the team has won four straight matches, beating Turkmenistan and Hong Kong, China.
On August 29, Malaysia began to prepare for the game. Kim said he will abandon the "bus" tactics and hope to win with attacking soccer. The outstanding performance of the naturalized players will be the key to the team's victory. However, in the first training session, two players were injured, goalkeeper Lim Kaye was replaced by Ghani, but Kim Jong Koon did not call up Woon Siew Hong as a replacement.
Syria: Cooper tweaks victory list
Syria's head coach, Argentinean marquee player Cooper, is taking this warm-up match extremely seriously. However, the Syrians were disappointed in their matches in March and June when they lost 0-1 to Bahrain and Vietnam respectively. This time around, Cooper has tweaked the roster, dropping five international players, including naturalized midfielder Aish, who joined Seoul at the beginning of the year.
Ten players in Syria's 24-man roster play in the domestic league, but with the postponement of Syria's new season from Aug. 25 to Sept. 22, the domestic players' form is difficult to guarantee and they have to rely more on overseas players. Of those 13 overseas players, naturalized right back Weiss is the only European player in Greece's second league. Almost all of the remaining players play in West Asia, including Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, the UAE and Qatar.
Veteran midfielder Mawas and veteran striker Soma, who has just moved to Qatar Arabia, are the backbone of the Syrian team. They played for Dubai Youth last season respectively. Soma, who plays in the UAE, and Armenian striker Madikian are in excellent form. Also in good form is Dutch U16 national junior midfielder Ousmane, who joined Thai Premier League's Southpenn Warriors last year.
