KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia may have thrashed Uzbekistan 8-1 in their opening Junior Asia Cup Group B match in Muscat on Tuesday, but coach Amin Rahim was unimpressed.
Amin was hoping for more goals when his team took a 6-0 lead at half-time. Instead, his players relaxed in the second half and scored only two more goals.
He hopes this will not be the case when they play Bangladesh in their second game at the Sultan Qaboos City Complex tomorrow.
Bangladesh defeated Oman 2-0 on Tuesday.
"I am satisfied with the performance of my players in the opening two quarters. We did well as a defensive and offensive unit," said Amin yesterday.
"However, we were too relaxed in the final two quarters. We scored two goals and conceded one.
"We cannot afford to take it easy when we play Bangladesh. We have to be on our toes as Bangladesh have the quality to punish us.
"Overall, I am happy with eight goals, but the players must play consistently for 60 minutes.
Amin was not satisfied with the penalty corner conversion rate against Uzbekistan.
"We earned 12 penalty corners and converted only four. When you play a better team, you must take your opportunities from penalty corners," he added.
Defender T. Perabu was the toast of Malaysia by scoring a hat-trick in the seventh, ninth and 18th minutes. Alfarico Lance Liau Jr. (12th), Shahmie Irfan Suhaimi (26th), Che Nur Aqilrullah Che Khairulzi Anwar (27th), Mughni Kamal (43rd) and Adam Ashraf Johari (52nd) scored the other goals.
Shavkatjon Kakhramonov replied for Uzbekistan in the 55th minute.
The top three teams in Muscat will qualify for the Junior World Cup in Bukit Jalil from Dec 5-16. Malaysia have qualified as the host.