Thumbs Down To Vingada
THE Italians have reacted, swiftly and ruthlessly, duly sacking coach Gian Piero Ventura earlier this week after the Azzurri failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1958 following a 1-0 aggregate play-off defeat to Sweden.
At about the same time, Malaysia’s national coach Nelo Vingada has come under fire from fans and former international players after Malaysia were outplayed twice (4-1 on both occasions) by North Korea in the Asian Cup qualifiers in Buriram, Thailand.
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Vingada has made the worst start of any of Malaysia’s national coaches, after seven international matches, over the past 30 years.
He has overseen two draws and five defeats since taking up his appointment in June.
NSTP sport has run a readers poll on whether the FA of Malaysia (FAM) should sack Vingada or let him continue. The Portuguese, who replaced Ong Kim Swee as national coach, signed a two-year contract with FAM in May.
Vingada has not scored well with NSTP readers. Sixty-one per cent of the 1,100 football fans polled, said “Yes” (he should be sacked). Thirty-nine per cent said “No” (he should not be sacked).
Former TV pundit and ex-national player Serbegeth Singh said Vingada should be sacked right away while football legend Datuk Santokh Singh has urged the coach to resign as a form of apology to Malaysian fans.
But there are others who empathised with Vingada’s situation, considering the low quality of the national players. Football legend Jamail Nasir said even Alex Ferguson would faint if he had to coach the Malaysian team.
Many critics claim that bringing the world’s best coach here won’t help improve the standards of the national team.
Former international Bakri Ibni feels that FAM should rely on a local coach instead of a foreigner as he would be more familiar with the local players and thus can communicate better.
Bakri said, Vingada as professional with a sense of accountability, should offer his resignation instead of waiting for FAM to wield the axe and hope for compensation.
# POLL: Should FAM sack national coach Nelo Vingada following Malaysia’s embarrassing results in the Asian Cup football qualifiers? Have your say.
1100 polled,
61 per cent say “yes”
39 per cent say “no”
Some of the NSTP readers’ comments
Moses Francis
It's easy to vote “yes”, but the problem is so deep, years of under performance and producing sub-par athletes.
And we expect someone to come in and magically change everything.
Bran Ho
Whoever takes over, the problem will remain the same. Are our so-called national players really up to international standards? So many coaches come and go, but did we ever improve? I bet if Sir Alex Ferguson were to coach the team, the story will still remain the same.
Why not FAM arrange a friendly match against San Marino and see whether we get something out of it. Then, we decide... is it the coaches’ fault or the players just too afraid to perform?
Abdul Rahim Abu Bakar
Why is our international ranking very low? Because we simply do not have players good enough. Simple. Even our best player would not make a third division team in England. And they have no desire to improve because even at their mediocre level, they are already earning huge money. The whole set-up stinks.
Izzanol Bokiah Bokiah
I noticed some voted Yes (61%). Listen, we have not reached a level where we can stand tall with other Asean countries’ teams. We can't even beat Thailand for many years.
All I'm saying is if we could bring Arsene Wenger or Jose Mourinho to coach our national team, the result would be the same.
Faezan Daniel: No, give Vingada
time, more time. Success doesn't come easy. Success needs work, dedication, teamwork, spirit and NOT based on individual performance.
If every time we lose a game, we sack the coach, why don't we sack the players? We change coaches every single year but we don't achieve anything.
FAM should look into ge
tting the right players. There are a lot of talented young blood with the hunger to win. FAM need to look out for this kind of players.
And don't bring politics into sports, you will just make the beautiful game look ugly.
Sitheravellu Sathasivam
FAM were hoping for the coach to create magic overnight. But the damage has already been done to the national football team long before with fat salaries, poor attitudes of some our players and even allegations of bookies on the prowl in our local league matches.
Even Alex Ferguson nor Jose Mourinho wouldn’t succeed under such situation. Rebuild the national team from the youth team, the under-16, 19 and 22 for the future.
Logeswaran Dharmarajasingam
We should blame those players for not performing well. Not the coach. The coach’s job is to educate the players to perform well on the field. What’s wrong with our players? We have everything but why the players can’t perform? We should try playing with only local players in our local league. This will improve local players well and the coaches can see for themselves.
- NST
