PETALING JAYA: The 40th Mer­deka Tournament, scheduled for next month, has attracted a poor field, with only Sierra Leone and Myanmar ranked higher than hosts Malaysia. Seven teams have confirmed their participation in the eight-nation tournament, which will be held at the Shah Alam Stadium from Oct 15-25. Sierra Leone, No. 145 in the FIFA world rankings, and Myanmar (160) are ahead of Malaysia (161). The other five nations are Vietnam (166), Nepal (177), Bangladesh (179) and Afghanistan (182). Kazakhstan (120) have yet to con­firm their participation while Pakistan (168) have been put on standby. Malaysia emerged champions last year when they defeated Myanmar 3-1 in the final. The national team, under chief coach B. Sathianathan, are on a playing tour of Slovakia to prepare for the Merdeka Tournament and the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup tournament in December. http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2008/9/20/sports/2078104&sec=sports
For my parents' generation, Merdeka Cup was their World Cup when they were teenagers. According to my Dad, when Korea won the tournament, the whole country celebrated like we won the World Cup.
Yeah, the age of the Friendly Cup are over Such Cup were more useful & popluar 20-30 years ago when travelling was tougher & the WCQ & ACQ were played over 1-2 month & there were no domestic league fixture (in most of Asia) to compete in so such competition may be the only competition a team get to play that year The FAs organiser cld thus get good competition & it build up the reputation but now it impossible & qns must be asked if it worth the effort Other Cup like HK Calrsberg Cup only attract club teams, nt NT anymore, & reserve team at that
There r a nos of international competition to cover that Regional cup like Suzuki Cup (ASEAN), WAFF Cup (West Asia), Gulf Cup (Gulf reigon), EAFF Cup (East Asia), SAFF Cup (South Asia) r all playing on a 2 year basis Other than that, there is also a AFC challenge Cup now for the weak teams like Nepal etc There why the Friendly Cup do nt attract teams now as there r more recognised competitions in this age.
Merdeka is good preparation for Malaysia before ASEAN Championship. The best Asian teams are busy with World Cup qualifiers and to get 8 national teams to play in a tournament in October is quite impressive even though the teams are not as good as before. Merdeka tournament started already in 1957. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesm/merdeka.html
The prblem is nt this year version, next year or any future version The problem is ASEAN FAs r putting all their effort into hosting such events. The highlight of their year r always their own Friendly Cup but it does nt help them 1 bit come crunch time in the WCQ or ACQ. Thai hve won the last few King Cup, Malaysia also in Merdeka, Indonesia just won the Independence Cup & Myanmar the Royal Cup but none hve make a big leap in standard & worse is with the $ & effort in such Friendly Cup, it mean they r always at home as they seldom travel & plus a few games (usually at home as well) is all they played a year That why results away always hve a loop side to it S'pore won no pts away in the ACQ 06 but in the recent WCQ improve to 2 win, 1 draw & 2 lost away & it came from spending $, that is likely to equal hosting such Friendly Cup, playing in UAE, Oman, Kuwait since 2006 etc ASEAN will remain in the rut if FAs only care abt winning such Friendly Cup as the QC hve dropped & it is no longer a guage of improvement.
Totally agree, most people i talk to are just happy to win something, so if it's winning King's Cup or whatever they are happy and is good enough for them, but they don't seem to see into the future when the big matches come along and we suffer because we play pointless tournement after tournement . But all these nations dream of world cup one day, but they aren't going to make it, with the way they enter all these tournements, hell, Merdeka is a mini AFF Suzuki Cup. But these nations do not seem to notice that all they ever do is play the same teams time after time. No wonder they struggle when they have to go to West Asia for crucial world cup or asian cup points
Everybody love to win a trophy That why Ireland, Scotland, N.Ireland & Wales r joining together to play the Home Cup to get a trophy However with a Asean championship aka Suzuki Cup established in the region, wonder at times why the FAs do nt change Merdeka Cup or King Cup or Agribank Cup into U23 or U21 event instead as it is the youth that need more such games, nt NT who shld be traveling to West Asia to play tougher games for ACQ & WCQ Even the weaker ASEAN team hve AFC Challenge Cup to look forward to now along with ASEAN Championship Qualifiers so more than enough games for ASEAN NT
Maybe Syria should create their own. But seriously, i think the days when Syria might have played in a tournement like this are long gone. They have kind of moved up a step higher than the likes of Vietnam, Malaysia etc, so really they want to be getting involved in games slightly higher. Around your region, you need to be playing the likes of Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE on a regular basis and moving into Europe, get games against Cyprus, Kazahkstan rather than meddling over in ASEAN tournements, where you won't really benefit, and would more than likely do more harm than good. I suppose your WAFF Championship is just like the Merdeka Tournement, so you don't need more games for the sake of it. But you need more regional competition to keep you going for when their is no Asian Cup or World Cup qualifiying left, thats where Arab Nations helps you out, but has kind of gone missing. You could do with Arab nations, but then, you are amongest bigger nations that will not want it due to competing further into World Cup games, so you just need a Friendly tournment that involves Arab teams like Sudan, Yemen and an Oman - something like that anyway. Anyway, just my opinion!
You are right brother,but look we aren´t playing ANY friendlies,that is terrible.We don´t have a coach.Bye,bye,Asian Cup 2011!
Mozambique replacing Kazakhstan in Merdeka Cup. http://www.thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2008/10/1/sports/2158337&sec=sports
PETALING JAYA: Hosts Malaysia have been placed in Group A with Sierra Leone, Nepal and Afghanistan for the 40th Merdeka Tournament, which will be held at the MBPJ Stadium in Kelana Jaya from Oct 15-25. Mozambique, ranked 102nd on the FIFA list, will be the top draw card in Group B with Myanmar, Bangladesh and Vietnam. The Group B matches will be held at the Shah Alam Stadium. http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2008/10/9/sports/2226478&sec=sports
any TV coverage for this tournement? eager to see what Afg can do after they failed to perform to there potential (with a depleted squad though) in the Challenge Cup, tough group for them, but lets see what happens..
15th October Malaysia v Nepal Afghanistan v Sierra Leone 16th October Bangladesh v Mozambique Myanmar v Vietnam U-23 17th October Malaysia v Afghanistan Nepal v Sierra Leone 18th October Bangladesh v Myanmar Mozambique v Vietnam U-23 19th October Malaysia v Sierra Leone Afghanistan v Nepal 20th October Bangladesh v Vietnam U-23 Mozambique v Myanmar 23rd October Semi-Finals 25th October Final Matches on 17th and 19th may be reversed, not sure yet. Any news on the African teams, are they bringing their national teams? Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar and Nepal definitely are. Vietnam are definitely bringing their U-23 team.
Would be nice if you could give me the match times too . I'm right now in Malaysia so I wish I can watch it on TV.
Malaysia play 8.45 Pm today local time. Afghanistan - Sierra Leone is probably played on 19. and not today.