Bola Malaysia 08 : Khor: FAM’s foreign KO cost Kedah

22 September 2008
http://www.the-afc.com/eng/articles/viewArticle.jsp_168100864.html

ALOR SETAR – Kedah coach Khor Sek Leng believes the Football Association of Malaysia’s decision to ban foreign players from the Malaysian league has cost his team any chance of contending for the AFC Cup.

The Malaysian treble winners got a huge contribution from their foreign contingent in the group stage this season with Chilean midfielder Nelson San Martin and Saint Vincent and Grenadines striker Marlon James bagging four goals each and James’ compatriot, defender Cornelius Huggins skippering the team that won four out of six games.

But with the trio departing after Kedah’s Malaysia Cup victory last month, Khor saw his side suffer a humiliating 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Bahrain league champions Muharraq in the first leg of their quarter-final tie in Manama last week.

Speaking ahead of the return match at the Darulaman Stadium on Tuesday, the Kedah coach lamented the lack of foreign talent in his squad.

"I know that if we had the three foreign players with us, things would have been different. And I would go so far as saying that we could have won the match against Muharraq in Bahrain," said the former Malaysia international defender.

"As things stand at the moment, even the local Bahraini players are physically better and what’s more, they have foreign players.

“I believe that we will struggle not only for this game against Muharraq but also in next year's AFC Cup. It has been a bad decision (to ban the foreign players).

"The only solace which I can take for this game is the fact that in the last match, we held them scoreless until the second half and I think that we can do something with that.

“These are the best players that we have at the moment, so there's little which we can do with regards to making changes to the line-up."

Muharraq arrived in Malaysia on Saturday night and are leaving nothing to chance despite their big advantage in the tie.

Coach Salman Sharida will be utilising the same tactics that he employed in the first leg and hopes to have everything wrapped up well before the end.

"We need to be better in this match than how we did in the first leg when we scored only in the second half," he said.

"There might be some changes to the line-up as I think that we cannot afford to take any chances with this one game even though we have a comfortable lead."