National Under-19 coach
Dayem Hj Ali supervising
training in this 2011
file photo. Picture: BT
file
The national Under-19 football team fell to their fourth defeat of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Under-19 Championship 2013 after losing 5-0 to Malaysia at the Gelora Delta Sidoarjo Stadium in Surabaya, Indonesia yesterday.
Brunei remain at the bottom of Group B after the defeat and are still without a point to their name.
They have conceded a staggering 24 goals and have yet to find the back of the net in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Malaysia currently sit third with seven points two points below second-placed Indonesia.
According to the AFF official website, the Malaysians were four goals up at the break and they added another goal in the second-half.
Meanwhile, the later match at the Gelora Delta Sidoarjo saw Indonesia defeat Thailand 3-1.
The win moved the hosts to second in the table with nine points and puts them in a strong position to qualify for the next round.
Vietnam, who already qualified to the semi-finals, cemented their position at the top of the table with maximum of 12 points after defeating Myanmar 3-1 at the Petrokimia Gresik.
Myanmar's hopes of making the semi-finals are very slim following the defeat.
They are fourth with four points and will play Thailand in their last game.
Even if they beat Thailand, it will not be enough to squeeze through.
Brunei will continue their campaign tomorrow with a meeting against Vietnam at the Petrokimia Gresik.
The national team kicked off their campaign on Tuesday with a 5-0 loss to host Indonesia and were demolished by Thailand 8-0 in their second game on Thursday.
The national team were then thrashed 6-0 by Myanmar on Saturday at the Petrokimia Gresik in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Japan are the defending champions in the tournament after defeating Australia 3-1 in last year's final in Laos, but they are not featuring in the tournament this year.
Laos, the Philippines, Timor Leste, Singapore and Cambodia are in Group A after the withdrawal of Australia.
Since its introduction in 2002, Myanmar have won the tournament twice in 2002 and 2005.
Thailand and Vietnam are also two-time winners.
Thailand clinched the tournament in 2007 and 2011 while Vietnam won it in 2006 and 2010.
The team's head coach Dayem Hj Ali always knew the side would face a hard time in Indonesia but was insistent his squad, which incude Faiq Jefri Bolkiah, would give it their all.
"It is going to be tough but we have to try our best regardless. We want the boys to get more experience and exposure playing in such big tournaments," said Dayem in an interview with The Brunei Times before their departure on Sept 6.
"We are working as a team and we are looking to build from the experience we get.
"We haven't set a target for this tournament but we will take it one game at a time. We know how tough our opponents are and of course everyone wants to win.
"We have been preparing for almost two months but the biggest problem is that we haven't had any sparring games.
"We are looking to be competitive and to give our opponents a good challenge. We need to hustle on each play and ensure we keep possession to disallow our opponents many chances
"I'm afraid that our game fitness might not be enough at the moment... Just like in our last tournament (in Brunei), we could keep up in the first half but we lost our focus in the second half."
