Players respond to Kim Swee
Malaysia’s Ahmad Fakri Saarani (second from left) celebrates his goal against Myanmar with teammates at the Gelora Bung Karno in Jakarta yesterday. - OSMAN ADNAN
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Coach Ong Kim Swee was sweating buckets in the VIP seating area of the stadium as he served a one-match touchline ban as time ticked away with Myanmar proving to be stubborn opponents.
Kim Swee, however, breathed a sigh of relief as Fakri turned a loose ball into goal in the 85th minute after Irfan Fazali fluffed a sitter from Izzaq Faris Ramlan.
The coach admitted it was not the best of displays from the defending champions after facing Indonesia less than 48 hours in their last match.
"We didn't play well in the first half, it was the price we had to play after beating Indonesia 1-0. The players were tired but in the second half they showed good character to go after the winner.
"I told them to keep pushing forward and not to give up until we managed to get the goal," said Kim Swee of his half-time pep-talk.
As Kim Swee resorted to passing down hand-written notes to the bench, assistant coach Hassan Sazali Waras took charge of the match.
It was Hassan's decision to replace Syahrul Azwari Ibrahim with Izzaq which turned out to be the turning point of the match.
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