KUALA LUMPUR: Can Malaysia prove that their youth football is among the best in Asia though this cannot be said of the national senior team?
National Under-17 coach Osmera Omaro will certainly hope that his boys can make an impact in the Under-17 Asian Cup next year. The host is yet to be announced.
Last week, Osmera's team qualified for the Asian Cup as group winners in the qualifying round in Bogor, Indonesia.
Malaysia will join other group winners: Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Vietnam, Australia, Tajikistan, Iran and Uzbekistan in the tournament proper. Making up the 16-team competition are the best group runners-up South Korea, China, Afghanistan, India, Thailand and Laos.
This will be Malaysia's sixth appearance in the Under-17 Asian Cup after outings in 2004, 2008, 2014, 2016 and 2018. Their best finish was reaching the quarter-finals in 2014 in Thailand.
Osmera said he is working on Malaysia to do better — which means the semi-finals. And it's good to have ambitions or how else is Malaysian football to progress?
"We achieved our target to qualify for the Asian Cup and we aim to do better there. But it's a higher level competition. We will prepare and fight hard."
Osmera said he will continue working on the team and he wants the players to be sharper for the Asian meet, which also serves as a qualifier for the 2023 Under-17 World Cup in Peru.
As part of the preparations, he said the team will compete in the M-League's President's Cup next year.
"We will also participate in a competition in Uzbekistan."
Osmera said Malaysia's successful qualifying campaign in Bogor is a sign that the Mokhtar Dahari Academy (AMD) programme is on the right track, but fans should be patient.
"We learned a lot from the campaign in Indonesia. The team have a bright future but we need to keep improving, and it's the same for me as a coach, I need to be better."