SEPANG: All the national Under-23 squad players need to acclimatise themselves with South Korea’s cold weather before they take up the challenge of the 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-23 Championship in China next month.
National Under-23 coach, Datuk Ong Kim Swee, said the players ability to adjust and adapt to the cold weather is an important criteria to ensure they get their ‘flight tickets’ to China to take part in the prestigious championship.
However, Kim Swee admits that the players will need time to adapt to the weather, and he expects that the players will be able to acclimatise themselves in three or four days after arriving there.
“What I want to see during the friendly matches is the players able to follow instructions and play well in the cold weather which is the main criteria.
“If they are unable to adapt, then perhaps those who can’t will risk being dropped from the squad, but it all also depends on how they perform in the three friendly matches there.
“Whatever it is, I know the players need three to four days to get used to such weather conditions, and after that we will see each player’s progress as we need to focus on our approach for the matches and what we need to do,” he said.
He said as much when met at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) mast night (Saturday) before flying off to Mokpo, South Korea together with the squad as they head for a centralised training camp for two weeks till December 30.
Throughout the training stint there, the squad will also play three friendly matches against Mokpo City (December 20), Jeonju University (December 22) and Jeonju Citizen (December 28).
At the same time, the former coach of the national senior squad does not want to think about anything negative but instead focus on correcting and improving the squad’s weaknesses during training.
“For me, the first phase of centralised training was on identifying and addressing weaknesses in the team, and the second phase in South Korea is to fine tune all aspects before the third phase in China next month.
“I only want to think positive and if there are any problems or issues that crop up while we’re in South Korea, we have alternative contingency plans in place,” he said.