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M’sian ’80s striker: Film should have stuck to facts
Published:  Feb 18, 2016 4:52 PM
Updated: 10:46 AM

James Wong, who scored the winning goal for the Malaysian team in the Moscow Olympics qualifying football match, said the feature film 'Ola Bola' should have stuck to facts.

This way, younger audience who do not have memories of the 1980 game would not be confused, the Sabahan told Bernama .

The match in Kuala Lumpur against South Korea was much discussed in the past weeks following the premiere of ‘Ola Bola’ which is inspired by Malaysian football in its heyday.

Characters in the film, however, do not share the same names as the national players and various aspects of the story were amended for cinematic purposes.

Some viewers were unhappy that the winning goal in the film was scored by Malay striker Ali, who wore the number 10 jersey, after he received a pass from ethnic Chinese Sabahan player Eric who wore the number 9 jersey.

In the 1980 game, number 9 player Wong scored the winning goal after he received a pass from team mate Hassan Sani.

Speaking to Bernama , Hassan agreed that the film should have stuck closer to the facts.

For example, he said, the score for Malaysia vs South Korea was 3-2 and not 2-1 as in the film.

However, he lauded the filmmaker’s success in capturing the spirit of the times and the camaraderie between the national players, who were of different ethnicities.

"The story line (of the film) is good. Our football players at that time were from all the communities.

“It is almost similar to what we had gone through, like how we trained and went to the Merdeka Stadium in a helicopter," he told the national newswire.

He, however, lamented how the national squad does not have players from all communities and wondered why some communities are no longer keen on football.

Wong said the team’s sole motivation was to bring glory to Malaysia.

"In those days, there were no professional players like we have today. All of us played for the country. We were focused on victory.

“I feel that in an endeavour at all, including sports, if we have the right mindset, we can certainly achieve success," he said.

Earlier, director Chiu Keng Guan dismissed complaints about factual inaccuracies by pointing out that the film is just inspired by true events.

The film produced by Astro Shaw continues to draw in audiences, raking in RM12 million in the first 18 days of screening.

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