SEPANG: National Under-22 (U-22) football squad midfielder, T. Saravanan is confident that the team will bounce back and record positive results in the future after having to return early from the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games in Phnom Penh.
According to Saravanan, even though the squad coached by E. Elavarasan had played with the best tactics in high fighting spirit, luck was not on their side to meet the target of advancing to the semi-finals.
“This year, the team has done its best, but we were unlucky to not advance to the next round.
“We didn’t have any major weaknesses in our performance. The coaches and players have given 100 per cent, but we couldn’t display on the field what we had been trained to do,“ he said when met at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (Klia2), here after arriving from Phnom Penh, early this morning.
The Harimau Muda squad started their Cambodia SEA Games campaign on the right foot after defeating Laos 5-1 in the opening match of Group B.
But all hopes of advancing to the semi-finals were dashed after the national team suffered losses at the hands of the favourites, Thailand 0-2 and Vietnam 1-2 in the second and third matches of the group respectively.
Saravanan, who is with Kuala Lumpur City FC hopes that his U-22 squad teammates would not consider the results achieved in Phnom Penh to be the end of everything.
“We still have a long way to go and I’m sure the players will realise that and rise up in the coming matches,“ said Saravanan who also scored four goals in Malaysia’s 7-0 thrashing of Singapore in the last Group B match. -Bernama
