Malaysian football reached the pinnacle on that fateful night of Apr 6, 1980, when Hassan Sani slalomed past two Korean defenders before delivering the pass for James Wong to nail home the winning goal that earned Malaysia one of three tickets from Asia to the Moscow Olympic Games.
Karl Weigang's boys beat the Koreans 3-0, drew 1-1 with Japan (bereft of Kunishige Kamamoto and Yasuhiko Okudera), defeated Brunei 3-1, demolished Indonesia 6-1 and the Philippines were whitewashed 8-0 as Soh Chin Aun and gang topped the group. The winner of the group, though, was determined through a playoff, so Chin Aun and Co had to negotiate a replay against second-placed South Korea, who had Huh Jung-moo among them.
The 3-0 win in the opening group tie, when James Wong, Khalid Ali and Abdullah Ali left their names on the scoresheet and substitute Cho Gwang-rae missing a penalty, needed to be consigned to history. Without the speed and goalscoring instincts of Mokhtar Dahari (retired following a variety of factors), Weigang pinned his tactics on Hassan Sani's fleet foot, the defensive combo of Chin Aun-Santokh, Khalid Ali's versatility and James Wong's lanky presence upfront.
Much to the delight of the capacity crowd at Merdeka Stadium, Perlis' poster boy Bakri opened the scoring in the 12th minute. The Koreans however equalised through Gang-nam in the 58th minute.
With five minutes remaining, Khalid's headed clearance from a freekick found Hassan in the middle of the park. The rest is history.
The country's decision to boycott the Moscow Games denied the class of 1980 to demonstrate their class at the highest amateur level for football then.
Malaysia's starting line-up - R. Arumugam, Jamal Nasir Ismail, Soh Chin Aun, Santokh Singh, Kamaruddin Abdullah, Bakri Ibni, Shukor Salleh, Khalid Ali, Abdullah Ali, Hassan Sani, James Wong.
South Korea - Kim Hwang-ho, Choi Jong-duk, Cho Young-jeung, Lee Jang-soo, Kim Hong-joo, Park Sang-in, Kim Gang-nam, Gwang-rae, Shin Hyun-ho, Chung Hae-won, Huh Jung-moo.
0 comments:
Post a Comment