Wednesday, March 18, 2015
BOTH Mike Wong and Chen Kuei-Jen agreed that the only way for Brunei to improve is to play more competitive games.
Stand-in national football coach Wong is trying to look forward after their 2-0 defeat to Chen’s Chinese Taipei in their 2018 World Cup first round qualifier last night.
The Singaporean, who is the first coach from his country to lead a foreign national side, felt that their lack of experience was the biggest factor in the loss.
“We worked hard for the two games but we are unlike Chinese Taipei as the majority of them are experienced,” said Wong during the post-match press conference.
“They have played more competitive games whilst this is only our second game as a team. We were a bit nervous and we could have done better if more composed.
“Overall it was a good experience for the boys. We were competitive and showed that Brunei, who are second from bottom in the FIFA ranking... That (ranking) is not somewhere we should stay,” he added.
Chen agreed with Wong’s assessment that Brunei need to play more high-level games.
“Brunei will improve a lot in the next few years if they play more international games as they have many young players and have got a good future,” said Chen.
“At first we were a little bit relaxed after drawing them. We knew nothing about Brunei and they played better than we thought.
“But we lost at home (1-0 in the first leg) even though we really thought we could have easily won 2-0 or 3-0. We knew that we had to respect them and would need 100 or even 120 per cent to beat them tonight,” he added.
The result might not have gone the way he wanted, but Wong, who is the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam’s (NFABD) technical director, was still proud of his charges considering they only started training late January.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted to go to the second round but it was 8/10 in terms of the level of performance,” he opined.
“We should move forward from here and see what we can do for the next six months. As a team we have gone a level up compared to the last five years and we hope that teams in the Southeast Asian region will look as Brunei as a competitive team in region.
“I would say that we believe we’ve got some better players.
“Obviously we cannot say we have chosen the best 23, but we got the right 23 for these two games,” continued Wong.
Chen continued that he was not surprised that Brunei came out with a defensive set-up since they carried a one-goal advantage from the first leg.
“It was probably easier for us as the only way for us to qualify was to win. Our players were very patient and their performance tonight (Tuesday night) was 100 per cent,” he added.
The Brunei Times
Stand-in national football coach Wong is trying to look forward after their 2-0 defeat to Chen’s Chinese Taipei in their 2018 World Cup first round qualifier last night.
The Singaporean, who is the first coach from his country to lead a foreign national side, felt that their lack of experience was the biggest factor in the loss.
“We worked hard for the two games but we are unlike Chinese Taipei as the majority of them are experienced,” said Wong during the post-match press conference.
“They have played more competitive games whilst this is only our second game as a team. We were a bit nervous and we could have done better if more composed.
“Overall it was a good experience for the boys. We were competitive and showed that Brunei, who are second from bottom in the FIFA ranking... That (ranking) is not somewhere we should stay,” he added.
Chen agreed with Wong’s assessment that Brunei need to play more high-level games.
“Brunei will improve a lot in the next few years if they play more international games as they have many young players and have got a good future,” said Chen.
“At first we were a little bit relaxed after drawing them. We knew nothing about Brunei and they played better than we thought.
“But we lost at home (1-0 in the first leg) even though we really thought we could have easily won 2-0 or 3-0. We knew that we had to respect them and would need 100 or even 120 per cent to beat them tonight,” he added.
The result might not have gone the way he wanted, but Wong, who is the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam’s (NFABD) technical director, was still proud of his charges considering they only started training late January.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted to go to the second round but it was 8/10 in terms of the level of performance,” he opined.
“We should move forward from here and see what we can do for the next six months. As a team we have gone a level up compared to the last five years and we hope that teams in the Southeast Asian region will look as Brunei as a competitive team in region.
“I would say that we believe we’ve got some better players.
“Obviously we cannot say we have chosen the best 23, but we got the right 23 for these two games,” continued Wong.
Chen continued that he was not surprised that Brunei came out with a defensive set-up since they carried a one-goal advantage from the first leg.
“It was probably easier for us as the only way for us to qualify was to win. Our players were very patient and their performance tonight (Tuesday night) was 100 per cent,” he added.
The Brunei Times
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