Harimau Malaya in memory

Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) have announced that the nickname of the Malaysia national football team, Harimau Malaya will be known as Harimau Malaysia starting 2016 onwards.

There are plenty of history on the name of Harimau Malaya.

Malaysia national team gained the nickname Harimau Malaya after the Malaysian legendary striker of 1940s and 1950s, Dollah Don who scored three goals for Melayu Singapore team after 3-0 down against Indonesian side, Peseja. President of Indonesia, Sukarno at the time was so impressed with Dollah's performance that he begin calling Dollah, 'Harimau Malaya'. The nickname might came from the fact that Harimau Malaya is a well-known tiger in Southeast Asia. FAM soon adopted the nickname for the national team until the present day.

Since independence, Malaya has changed the name to Federation of Malaya until 1963 when the government has decided to form Malaysia that will represent Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak which the name has remain strong until today.

In 2004, when the name Harimau Malaya became official, it became highly controversial among the Malaysian association zoos as they argued it should be name panthera tigris malayensis to reflect the origin of the animal but after much negotiations, researchers of The World Conservation Union has decided to name the tiger panthera tigris jacksoni, to honour the tiger conservationist, Peter Jackson who has dedicated his life on promoting tiger conservation.

Besides that, General of Imperial Japanese Army, Tomoyuki Yamashita has also earned the nickname Tiger of Malaya after incredibly conquered Malaya and Singapore in just 70 days.

In recent years though, many have been critical with the nickname, citing that the nickname did not fully represent the whole country, as Malaya only represents the Peninsular (Semenanjung in Malay) with Sabahan and Sarawakian felt that their presence were completely ignored and they felt that the participation of the players such as James Wong and Hassan Sani were completely under-appreciated.

The President of FAM, Tengku Abdullah argued that the word Malaya no longer used by the country since 1963, and he wanted Sabah and Sarawak to feel that the national team belongs to them too.

Minister of Youth and Sports, Khairy Jamaluddin has addressed the issue last year and said that the name Harimau Malaya sounds like Sabah and Sarawak have not involved in the development of the national team at all.

Harimau Malaya has always been the identity of Malaysian football, and that identity has been cherished for such a long time by Malaysian society. In football, when the name changed, identity changed. When identity changed, it feels like they have lost something. Something precious.

This is Harimau Malaya that won Merdeka Cup, SEA Games, AFF Suzuki Cup. This is Harimau Malaya that participated in Munich Olympic 1972, Asian Cup 1976 and 1980 and qualified for Moscow Olympic 1980.

This is Harimau Malaya that were represented by so many great players such as Abdul Ghani Minhat, R.Arumugam, Chow Chee Keong, Wong Kam Fook, Soh Chin Aun, Santokh Singh, Peter Rajah, Wong Choon Wah, James Wong, Hassan Sani, Mokhtar Dahari-just to name a few.

Is the nickname Harimau Malaya for a football team really a big deal for you? If it's really a big deal, I'm sorry, Malaysia still have a long way to go. But if the nickname Harimau Malaysia makes you feel better, then fine. So be it.

Selamat tinggal Harimau Malaya.

Harimau Malaya
The nickname of Malaysia national football team.
(1950-2016)

What is wrong with Malaysia national team?

They defended very well for the first 30 minutes. Or so they thought. 10 minutes before half-time, Malaysia conceded three Palestine goals. They fought the second half, managed to produce some promising attacks, but again, they probably thought that is good enough. Full time, Malaysia 0 Palestine 6.

No one would have imagine how bad Malaysia NT will be in 2015. Malaysia played Palestine in Kuantan few years ago for a charity match and the result was 2-0 defeat. That's totally fine given the status of the match. Malaysia almost qualified for Asian Cup 2015 under K. Rajagobal but very few noticed that. As usual, for Malaysians if not qualified, it means we did not qualified. If Malaysia NT is shit, Malaysia NT is shit. As simple as that.

Dollah had such a promising run in AFF Suzuki Cup 2014. He's already feeling the heat after friendly defeats to both SEA countries, Vietnam and Indonesia. His team only drew 0-0 against Myanmar, lost 3-2 to Thailand but to win 3-1 against Singapore is his major turning point. The team went on to beat Vietnam brilliantly in the semi-final 2nd leg, that is why to lose in the final is just upsetting. He brought in an entirely new team, with such a highly questionable selections but very proud nonetheless to be able to make it to the final.

Of course, everyone thought he's the man for the job.

Come 2015, everything changed.

6-0 defeat to Oman.

0-0 draw to Hong Kong.

1-1 draw to Timor Leste.

6-0 defeat to Palestine.

10-0 defeat to UAE.

Dollah immediately resigned after the UAE defeat and even consider of retiring completely from football.

Ong Kim Swee was then appointed as a caretaker. He almost surprised Saudi Arabia but if only the chaos doesn't went out of control, things could have been slightly different. Later, Malaysia won 3-1 against Laos and 1-0 win against Timor Leste. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction once again. Again, that's what they thought. The team in full spirit to play in Jordan, only to lose to Palestine by the scoreline of 6-0. To the same opponent by the same scoreline.

6-0 is too much. That scoreline sounds like Malaysia is so bad at playing football and are not supposed to play football at all. It's like asking the government to ban Malaysian people to play football because Malaysian simply can't play football and doesn't know how to play football.

So what's the problem? Lack of training? Lack of will? Not patriotic enough? Too many mistakes? Bad selections?  Bad tactics? Opponent too good? Too many injuries? Need more naturalised players? Need foreign coach? Need U13 players? Bad domestic league? Too many foreign players? Or the usual suspect, FAM? Do all of us even realized what's the real problem here?

Next Malaysia will play UAE on Nov 17 at Shah Alam Stadium. Can Malaysia play good football again, or will it be another 10-0 defeat? Only the NT players can answer that question, but what we do know is all the players really need to buck up. They must do something. No more 6-0.