SPORTS> Teams
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Malaysia (Group C)
Updated: 2007-07-07 20:35 A force in Asian football in the late 1970s, Malaysia have suffered a sharp drop-off in recent years and enter the 2007 AFC Asian Cup as the lowest-ranked of the 16 teams.
Malaysia's ranking reached an all-time low of 33rd in Asia and 157th in the world in January but they gave fans something to cheer that same month when they reached the semi-finals of the Asean Football Championship despite a 1-0 defeat to Thailand in the group stage. The four-time SEA Games gold-medallists were within sight of their first appearance in the Asean final since 1996 when Eddy Helmi Manan gave them a 2-1 aggregate lead against Singapore in the second leg of their semi-final. Malaysian fans are far from optimistic about the prospects of Norizan Bakar's side at the Asian Cup and progress to the knockout stage from a group that includes Iran, China and Uzbekistan does indeed appear unlikely for the co-hosts and one-time powers of Asian football. Goalkeepers |