Qualifying for the Munich Summer Olympics in 1972 remains Harimau Malaya's greatest achievement.
In the 1970s, Malaysia was among the most feared and best football teams in Asia and reaching Munich justified its status.
In the qualifying round, Malaysia was flawless, beating Japan, South Korea, China and the Philippines to join Burma (now Myanmar) and Iran at the Olym-pics.
Captain M. Chandran, Soh Chin Aun, Ali Bakar and Namat Abdullah were among the players who propelled Malaysia's status as one of the top three teams in the continent.
Jalil Che Din's side was drawn in Group A with host West Germany, Morocco and the United States.
Although it was normal for players to travel by plane for matches in Asia then, most had never experienced flying on the Concorde from Singapore to Munich.
The late Salleh Ibrahim, who died in March, feared for his life as his first flying experience was on the British Airways' Concorde in 1972.
"It was my first flight. My heart was beating so fast during the flight, and I thought I was going to die.
"But I put on a brave face as our mission was to make Malaysia proud at the Olympics," Salleh said in an interview with Berita Harian in 2016.
Salleh said he had packed his cheap boots, which he bought for RM4.50, for the event.
"However, Adidas stepped in and sponsored the national team with boots before we boarded the flight."
In the first game on Aug 27, 1972, at the Munich Olympic Stadium, Malaysia faced West Germany in front of 60,000 home fans.
Malaysia silenced the fans when they managed to hold off the Germans in the first half. However, the home team blasted three goals after the breather to claim victory.
Reminiscing about the match, defender Namat Abdullah, in an interview in 2016, said the team did everything right but the Germans were just too good.
"When we were in the dressing room, we heard 60,000 German fans chanting for their team. We, however, were not afraid. Instead, it motivated us.
"It was a fantastic first half, but the Germans used a different strategy and won the match. There were many top players in their team then.
"As a right-back, I was assigned to mark Uli Hoeness. It was difficult to keep him at bay as he was skilful and fast," said Namat, the brother of Shaharuddin Abdullah, who also played in Munich.
Two days later, Malaysia's hopes of qualifying for the next stage were reignited when they thrashed the United States 3-0 with goals from Shaharuddin (14th), Salleh (67th) and Wan Zawawi Wan Yusof (77th).
Talking about his goal, Salleh said: "It was the happiest day of my life when I scored the second goal for Malaysia.
"It was tough against the well-built Americans. However, we played to our strategy and grew in confidence after Shaharuddin netted the first goal," he added.
The dream was on, and Malaysia only needed to beat Morocco to reach the second round on Aug 31.
However, their National Day celebration did not end well as the team was thrashed 6-0 by the African side at the ESV Stadium.
Goalkeeper Lim Fung Kee blamed Ditter Cramer, the technical director of West Germany, for offering wrong advice to the Malaysian players.
"Cramer was invited by the Malaysian camp to offer advice on how to beat Morocco.
"He claimed that Morocco would play a dirty game to provoke us.
"He told us not to react aggressively against Morocco.
"It affected us psychologically ahead of the game. We were scared during the game and did not do well. Morocco blasted four goals in the opening 25 minutes and it marked the end of our campaign. I replaced top-choice Wong Kam Fook after the breather. We played better in the second half, but it was too late," Fung Kee told Berita Harian in 2016.
The Munich Games marked Malaysia's only campaign at the Olympics.
The squad included Wong Kam Fook, Lim Fung Kee, Soh Chin Aun, M. Chandran, Bahwandi Hiralal, Osman Abdullah, Salleh Ibrahim, Mohamad Bakar, Wan Zawawi Wan Yusof, Harun Jusoh, Shaharuddin Abdullah, V. Krishnasamy, Ali Bakar, Rahim Abdullah, Looi Loon Teik, Khoo Luam Khen, Wong Choon Wah, Namat Abdullah and Hamzah Hussain.
They were coached by Jalil Che Din while Datuk Harun Idris and Datuk Peter Velappan were team manager and assistant team manager respectively.