Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Glory Moment of Malaysian Footballers

MUNICH 1972

FOR the first time in the history of Malaysian football, the national team – comprising the likes of M. Chandran, Soh Chin Aun, Wong Kam Fook, Shaharuddin Abdullah, Wong Choon Wah, Namat Abdullah, Lim Fung Kee, Ali Bakar and several others – played at the Olympics. Malaysia were drawn in Group A with West Germany, Morocco and the USA.

After losing to the Germans 0-3 in the opening game, Malaysia bounced back to beat the Americans 3-0. But their campaign ended prematurely after being thrashed 6-0 by Morocco.

The football team qualified for the Olympics a second time – Moscow 1980 – but did not take part as Malaysia was part of a US-led boycott to protest against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

(Olimpic Council of Malaysia@News)