Malaysian naturalized player plays like an amateur

On the evening of October 9, Malaysia beat Laos 3-0 in the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, but could not overshadow the lackluster image of Romel Morales.

Romel Morales played disappointingly against the underrated Lao defense.

As soon as the opening whistle blew at the Laos National Stadium, Malaysia completely dominated with more than 70% ball possession. Notably, most of the dangerous shots fell to Morales, but all passed in regret.

The Colombian had eight chances to score, most of them in the penalty area, but either missed, hit a defender or was easily saved by the Lao goalkeeper. In the 32nd minute, his powerful shot only hit the outside edge of the net. In the 46th minute, his close-range header was blocked on the goal line. In the 52nd minute, his seventh consecutive shot went straight into the goalkeeper's hands, causing coach Peter Cklamovski to shake his head in dismay.

In contrast to Morales’s lack of luck, Arif Aiman, a Malaysian striker, opened the scoring in the 53rd minute with a classy move. Dion Cools then doubled the lead in the 68th minute, but notably, this goal came from a situation where Morales missed a shot, the ball rebounded right to his teammate. In this situation, Morales stood on the left but shot straight at the Lao defender.

Paulo Josue then replaced Morales and also proved unlucky with two consecutive dangerous shots that failed in the final minutes. Even with the second shot, Josue had only an empty goal in front of him but he tapped the ball wide.

However, Malaysia still scored the winning goal in the 8th minute of injury time after the Lao defense repeatedly made mistakes. Perhaps Malaysian fans really miss Rodrigo Holgado and Joao Figueiredo. Both scored against Vietnam on their debut in the 4-0 victory in June.

While 7 top naturalized players like Rodrigo Holgado or Joao Figueiredo were suspended by FIFA due to scandals, Morales and Josue showed below-average performance, lacked sharpness and lacked courage in finishing.

Malaysia has 3 points, but the problem of naturalized players is still there. After 3 matches, Malaysia temporarily leads Group F of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers with 3 consecutive wins.

The starting lineup lacked Malaysia's suspended naturalized stars.

Source: https://znews.vn/cau-thu-nhap-tich-malaysia-da-nhu-nghiep-du-post1592151.html