
Yesterday (25th), Malaysia was a public holiday as the Hindu festival of Taipusam. However, I got a phone call from early this morning when I had to go to work, asking, “I played soccer well yesterday. Is it a holiday?”
It was probably referring to the 3-3 draw with Korea in the last Asian Cup qualifying round last night. It wasn’t even a win at the moment, but it was a tie, so I thought it was a bit absurd to mention a holiday.
When I inquired with that in mind, there was a data showing that the viewer rating reached 90% at the moment of the South Korea-Malaysia match, the last match in Group E of the Asian Cup.
People in Malaysia seem to really love soccer. A government that knows how these people feel sometimes declares a national holiday without notice if the national team wins a soccer tournament in the ASEAN region.
Even more absurd, Malaysia can decide on holidays in each state, so even if a home team based in its state wins, it declares a holiday at the discretion of the governor.
Malaysia, which is playing in the last Group E match of the 2023 Asian Cup, which is currently being held in Qatar, was already eliminated from the group stage. It also had no goals, losing 0-4 to Jordan and 0-1 to Bahrain. As shown in this result, the team was suffering from empty balls with five lost goals and no goals. The whole nation seemed to have been enthusiastic when such a team came from behind and tied the match against the 23rd-ranked South Korea in FIFA with three goals.
The Malaysian national soccer team is led by Korean coach Kim Pan-gon, and there have been many changes since Kim was appointed as the coach of the Malaysian national team.
The Malaysian national team, which was ranked 145th in the FIFA rankings at the time of taking office in 2022, also performed well after Kim’s appointment, and made the Malaysian national team advance to the Asian Cup finals on its own for the first time in 43 years, and as a result, the FIFA ranking has risen to 130th.
Among them, the most impressive match that wowed the entire nation was the preliminary round of Group D for the North American World Cup in November 2023. Malaysia, which was ranked 137th in the FIFA rankings at the time, was losing 1-3 until the second half against the 97th-ranked Kyrgyzstan, but led the team to a 4-3 come-from-behind victory due to persistent pursuit. The victory was so exciting that it even reported that the entire nation could not sleep at night.
Because of this experience, Malaysian soccer fans were expecting the Malaysian national team to show good performance in the match against the Korean team, even though it lost the first two games.
Coach Kim Pan-gon usually interacts with Korean residents while getting along well with them. Every time, he emphasized to the Malaysian national team that if you do your best to the end, success will come. Thanks to such education and training, he was able to do his best until the end by strengthening his physical strength, which had been rapidly falling in the second half, and as a result, he often wins from behind.
Malaysian people, who often see such games, say they can change their nationality, which they give up halfway.
As a side note, actor Heo Sung-tae’s popularity is increasing in Malaysia recently. Actor Heo Sung-tae, who played Jang Deok-soo in the Squid Game, said on social media that Malaysian soccer fans came to visit and thank him for advancing the Malaysian soccer team to the Asian Cup finals because of his similar appearance to coach Kim.
As such, the efforts of a sports leader seem to change the perception of Korean residents and contribute a lot to civilian exchanges.
BY: 토토사이트 추천