National Under U-23 football team head coach Brad Maloney speaks at the Malaysian SEA Games contingent press conference at the National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil, April 20, 2022. — Bernama pic
Monday, 06 Jun 2022 4:38 PM MYT
KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — National Under-23 (U-23) football squad chief coach Brad Maloney says he will continue to guide the team for the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers “for as long as his services are needed”.
He said this during a press conference following the poor performance of the squad which was ousted from the 2022 U-23 Asian Cup Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan after losing Group C matches against South Korea and Thailand.
“Yes, I think so. It has crossed my mind, you know something that obviously we might have to discuss with management once we get back,” he said when asked if he would continue as the chief coach of the team and make preparations for subsequent championships.
For the record, the Australian coach’s contract runs until December 2023.
The national U-23 lost 1-4 to defending champions South Korea on Thursday before being thrashed 0-3 by Thailand last night.
In the meantime, Maloney said he would reshuffle the starting line-up for the final Group C match against Vietnam on Wednesday to at least bring back a point.
“We will reassess the group and will definitely look at rotating the players for the next match,” he said.
Asked about the loss to Thailand, Maloney said his players had performed satisfactorily in the first 20 minutes before failing to prevent Thailand’s first goal in the 23rd minute.
“I think a few of our players were also tired from the first match and as I had said, we were chasing the game and we needed to make some changes to try and get something out of it,” he said, adding that the War Elephants deserved the three points based on their performance in the game. — Bernama
