PETALING JAYA – Harimau Malaya midfielder Brendan Gan remains unfazed as he and his teammates take on Kyrgyzstan in the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup qualifiers at Bukit Jalil National Stadium this Thursday.
He said that Kyrgyzstan head coach Stefan Tarkovic has attempted to unnerve the Malaysians using psychological warfare, it has not been a cause for concern as he believed that the qualities possessed by his teammates would enable them to prevail against their higher ranking opponents.
“For us, we just come here to do our job. We must focus on what we want to do, how we want to play,” he said when met during centralised training at Wisma FAM, Kelana Jaya here yesterday.
Tarkovic was reported to have announced the list of players he intends to field for the qualifying match against Malaysia on November 16 and Oman on November 21, which included players who have played in the Malaysia League, including Mirbek Akhmataliev (PDRM FC) and Tamirlan Kozubaev (PKNS FC), who are supposed to possess information about the weaknesses of the national squad.
Meanwhile, national head coach Kim Pan-gon has decided to call up Sabah FC left back Daniel Ting, who has been on the standby list, to join central training camp starting yesterday.
Daniel will replace Terengganu FC’s Azam Azmi Murad due to concerns over a knee injury.
After their encounter with Kyrgyzstan, Harimau Malaya will play Taiwan in Taipei City in their second Group D match on November 21. – November 13, 2023