MyTeam vs Malaysia: The Battle is Lost, but The War is Won?

I am by no measure, a soccer fan. At least not lately.

I used to be a keen Selangor supporter in my teens (in the days of Zainal Abidin Hassan) and I played football almost daily when I was living in Regent's Ville, up till the age of 17 and followed some games, from a few World Cups here and there - but that's as far as my passion with football lies.

I've never religiously followed the English Premier League - like most of my peers have. And I've only recently started choosing a favourite team - Arsenal - but more because I liked the colour of their jerseys, than anything else.

And of course, my high regard for Thierry Henry - as a player and more so, after seeing him give a commentary on the race relations situation in France on "Parkinson" - he's damn articulate and insightful - he speaks and thinks better than most professionals I know.

But last night, due to the coaxing of some friends and an offer of a few free passes as VIP guests of the media in the Bukit Jalil Stadium - I thought to myself - WHY NOT?

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And there I found myself in the MyTeam vs Malaysia match. Truth be told, I was expecting a boring evening of unexciting football, but I was looking forward to just catching up with some of the Regent's Ville boys - some of whom I haven't caught up with, in quite a while.

If you haven't heard of MyTeam, then you must have been living under a rock. It's had loads of hype, preceding this match.

This part reality TV, part talent development program, part political point-proving in the football fraternity effort - was mooted by UMNO's Deputy Youth Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin and the former national player and now, prominent football commentator, Serbegeth "Shebby" Singh.

The premise is simple. Go on a nation-wide talent hunt for a few months, pick the fastest footballers you can find (everyone in MyTeam can run the 100 metres in under 12 seconds) and give them 7 weeks to train under the coaching of a former national player and play together, and pit them against the national team. And see what happens.

Interesting premise.

And considering the dismal state of Malaysian football and the idiocy that Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has become, everyone began to wonder if this would go to prove that the progress of football in this country, has been impeded by politics and federal/state patronage, which has dulled the edge in our national players.

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I'm not going to give you a review of the match - I'll leave that the to newspapers and to the people who are experts.

But watching the match as a layman, I found that for a team that has only been together for 7 weeks, they didn't look like any less of a team than the national team did.

The MyTeam attacks and counter-attacks were swift and penetrating and made the Malaysian team's attacks look cautious and boring (although I've been told that it's football strategy - wait for the other team to make a mistake).

The so-called "estate boys" of MyTeam showed a lot of flair in their attacks, out-running and sometimes, out-dribbling 2-3 players from the national team. (Although some like Rizal would claim that they play like "budak sekolah"). And possession of the ball in both halves, was 50-50.

Considering that an obscene amount of money has been spent on the national team players and they play football profesionally, one expected a lot more from them (even if they're made up mostly of the national under-21 team). One would have expected them to dominate the game and trounce the "estate boys" by at least, 2-3 goals.

But that did not happen.

The Malaysian team defeated MyTeam 2-1, both converted out of free kicks. The first goal was the inexperienced goalie's mistake, but the second goal was just purely brilliant and unsaveable.

And there was one "almost-goal" by MyTeam which hit the bar in the 79th minute, which made the stadium roar in disappointment. If that had been a goal, it would have been a draw.

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A defeat is a defeat. There's no denying that. MyTeam lost the battle.

But the way that the national team won, was disturbing, to say the least. They did not dominate the game, despite having much better match fitness and experience. They did not show great skill or bold and daring strides up the MyTeam penalty box. They could hardly break through the MyTeam defence.

MyTeam is made up of a bunch of blue-collar workers from rubber estates and villages who have never had professional training and they've only been playing together for 7 weeks.

And they gave the national team, a damn good scare last night.

There's something to ponder there. What is the FAM doing with the taxpayer's millions and is it capable of producing results? Has our money been well-spent?

You proved your point, MyTeam - you won the war. Let's hope the Government will do something about FAM, for the sake of football development in this country.