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THE Qatar tour next week is one of only two opportunities left for national players to impress coach K. Rajagobal for inclusion into Malaysia's Asian Games squad.
With 16 players from the 2009 Sea Games gold medal team in the frame, competition for places in the under-23 squad to Guangzhou in November is fierce.

Ten players from the Young Tigers squad are also in training and the likes of big striker Izzat Faris Ramlan and young midfielder Gary Steven Robbat are threatening to steal the places of more established players.


Time is not on Rajagobal's side though as immediately after returning from Qatar the players return to their Malaysia Cup sides before assembling again at the end of September for an invitational tournament in Vietnam.

Following the Malaysia Cup final on Oct 30, the team leave for Guangzhou just six days later which puts greater emphasis on Qatar tour.

"This trip and the Vietnam tournament will be a good stage to assess the players but they will also continue to be monitored during the Malaysia Cup.


"But if they don't perform well for their states in the Malaysia Cup, then they will not be called up. What's the point of calling them up when we don't have the time to prepare?

"You must remember we leave for the Asian Games on Nov 5 and the Malaysia Cup final is on Oct 30," said Rajagobal after Thursday's night training session at Wisma FAM in Petaling Jaya.

Rajagobal was due to name his 22-man squad for Qatar after last night's training session for the friendly matches against a Qatari club on Monday and Oman's national team next Friday. They leave for Doha tonight.
In their final local friendly match, the national team beat KL Plus 3-1 on Tuesday.