KUALA LUMPUR: Despite their lack of international exposure, national Under-19 coach Bojan Hodak expects his 23-member squad to make the country proud in the AFF Under-18 Championship in Yangon.
Malaysia start their Group A campaign against Laos tomorrow. Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia make up the group.
The AFF competition is being used by Hodak to gauge his team for the AFC Under-19 qualifiers in South Korea on Oct 31-Nov 8.
Malaysia are in Group F with South Korea, Indonesia, Brunei and Timor Leste, and only the champions are guaranteed qualification for next year’s tournament proper in Indonesia
Hodak is assisted by Nenad Bacina and Hairuddin Omar.
"I have picked 23 players for the tournament. Most are with President’s Cup and youth teams while others have some Premier League and Super League experiences.
"When I was hired, I was given 40 trainees by the FA of Malaysia (FAM) to call up for centralised training.
"After evaluating them for two weeks, I chose 23 players for the tournament.
"To be frank, this batch is probably not the best Under-19 players in the country.
"There could be better players around but we will go with this 23 first. I will scout for talents after this tournament," said Hodak yesterday.
Hodak said the concerned parties did not give focus to the Under-19 batch in the last two or three seasons.
“Most players in the Under-19 batch do not have enough international experience. The Under-19 group are those stuck in the middle between the Bukit Jalil Sports School boys and those with the national Under-23 and senior teams," said the Croat.
On expectations in Yangon, Hodak said: "We are heading to Yangon with no pressure and this is good."
"We want to win matches. Frankly, we can only compare our standard and strengths with other teams after the AFF meet.”
On the qualifiers in Korea, Hodak added: "We will have a realistic target for the qualifiers after the AFF tournament.
"Korea will probably be the group champions with Malaysia and Indonesia fighting for the second spot.
"Most Southeast Asian countries started preparing for both youth tournaments a long time ago.
"Indonesia have been preparing for almost two years and they were in Europe recently for age-group tournaments. Thailand and Vietnam have been doing the same, while we only started two years ago,” Hodak added.
Hodak is expected to depend on Johor's Hadi Fayyadh Abdul Razak and Kedah's Akhyar Rashid, who played in the recent Sea Games, to lead his team's attack in Yangon.
The squad: Ahmad Tasnim Fitri Nasir, Azri Abdul Ghani, Zahril Azri Zabri, Izzuddin Roslan, Faizal Hafiq Omar, Qamarul Ariffin Norhisham, Azhar Apandi, Nabil Hakim Bokhari, Nik Akif Syahiran Nik Mat, Syaiful Alias, Saiful Islandar Adha Saiful Azlan, Aiman Arip Zulkarnain, Shafizi Iqmal Khirudin, A. Shivan Pillay, Hadi Fayyadh Abdul Razak, Zafuan Azeman, Ammar Akhmall Alias, Anwar Ibrahim, Awang Faiz Hazziq Awang Fathi, Akhyar Rashid, Shafiq Afifi Suhaimi, Nurfais Johari, Syafiq Danial Romzi.