Malaysia Happy With Performances After Two Manchester United Defeats

Once again, there were plenty of positives for The Tigers...

Malaysia head coach K. Rajagobal believes that there’s nothing to be ashamed of after his mostly Under-23 squad fell to their second defeat to Manchester United at the National Stadium on Monday evening.

While the Malaysians fought bravely in their 3-2 loss in the first game on Saturday, they could not produce a better performance when they fell to a 2-0 defeat.

In front of 40,000 fans, Federico Macheda put United in front after 11 minutes before Michael Owen added a second two minutes later.

The game, which was a repeat of Saturday’s meeting, was played due to the cancellation of United’s planned first ever trip to Jakarta for their second match of the Asia Tour 2009 due to bombings of two major hotels in the Indonesian capital.

Prior to kick-off, a minute's silence was observed in memory of the victims of the recent Jakarta bombings.

“Sure we lost both matches but our players can only learn from this experience,” said Rajagobal.

“They played as well as they could and while there are expectations for them to win the gold at the SEA Games later this year, there’s nothing which can be guaranteed in football.

“But I hope that these players will be given time to develop.”