Malaysia’s ‘Roy Keane’ ready to clip Garuda wings
Naturalised national footballer Brendan Gan Seng Ling has deemed Nov 5 as the “best day of his life”. This is because of the arrival of his bundle of joy, Koa Brooklyn Gan.
In a social media post, he shared: “The best day of my life... watching my superhero of a wife (Elyse) bring this little guy into the world.”
Gan, 31, who has Australian/Malaysian parentage, dedicated his goal in the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup qualifiers against Thailand at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium last week to his son...
Naturalised national footballer Brendan Gan Seng Ling has deemed Nov 5 as the “best day of his life”. This is because of the arrival of his bundle of joy, Koa Brooklyn Gan.
In a social media post, he shared: “The best day of my life... watching my superhero of a wife (Elyse) bring this little guy into the world.”
Gan, 31, who has Australian/Malaysian parentage, dedicated his goal in the 2022 World Cup/2023 Asian Cup qualifiers against Thailand at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium last week to his son.
He said on Facebook before the Thai encounter that, “Koa will carry with me as motivation to give more than 110 percent.”
And motivation his son surely did give. According to script, Gan, who is known by the moniker, “Top Gan”, scored the equaliser and assisted in the second goal with an outrageous chip to Mohamadou Sumareh to volley home the winner in the come-from-behind win.
It was Gan’s first international goal in 15 appearances for the national team.
Seeing double
His combative style of football is akin to Manchester United’s legend Roy Keane, 48, who served as the assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland's national team from 2013 until 2018.
The similarities are uncanny. Both are midfielders, they shadow between box-to-box and defensive play with ease. Both can score and are comfortable in holding positions. However, they also share similar knee injuries.
Keane tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in 1997, while Gan in 2015 and again in a friendly against Indonesia in 2016.
Malaysia will bank on Gan to deliver the goods again tomorrow, in what will be the return leg of their World Cup qualifiers in Jakarta in September, which saw plenty of fracas on the field and fan clashes.
Indonesian Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi had apologised to his Malaysian counterpart Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who was trapped with hundreds of Malaysian supporters inside the stadium for about two hours, as police had to resort to firing tear gas to clear the attackers.
Battle in the stands
Radical supporters group, Ultras Malaya, will provide the 12th-man strength from the stands as they did in the 2-1 win against the War Elephants. But, as always, the fierce rivalry between the two teams would be a cause for concern.
Ultras Malaya told Indonesian news programme liputan6.com that they will not seek revenge against Indonesian supporters. This comes as the social media war between the two supporters’ groups would usually heat up to boiling point each time the traditional rivals meet.
Stadium security
FAM president Hamidin Mohd Amin had urged the groups to refrain from causing any untoward incidents.
"I hope there will not be any form of crowd violence from both Indonesian and Malaysian fans. FAM does not want crowd trouble in Malaysia,” he said.
Tickets have been sold out at 6.30pm yesterday, two days before the match, a tournament record so far. The 87,000-seating capacity Bukit Jalil National Stadium saw the Thai encounter with not more than 30,000 spectators.
Malaysia currently stands in fourth place sharing six points with the UAE, while Thailand is in second place with seven points. Vietnam tops Group G with 10 points.
The Malaysia-Indonesia match starts at 8.45pm at Bukit Jalil National Stadium.
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