NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF: RAJAGOBAL

While the Malaysians fought bravely in their 3-2 loss in the first game on Saturday, this time round, they could not produced a better performance when they fell to a 2-0 defeat.

The game which was a repeat of Saturday’s tie was played due to the cancellation of United’s planned first ever trip to Jakarta for their second match of the Asia Tour 2009 due to bombings of two major hotels in the Indonesian capital.

And last night, prior to kick-off a minute silence was observed in memory of the victims of the recent Jakarta bombings.

“Sure we lost both matches but our players can only learn from this experience,” said Rajagobal.

“They played as well as they could and while there are expectations for them to win the gold at the SEA Games later this year, there’s nothing which can be guaranteed in football.

“But I hope that these players will be given time to develop.”

In the match which was attended by close to 40,000 fans, Federico Macheda put United in front after 11th minute before Michael Owen completed the score line for the night two minutes later.

“The Malaysians have the ability but they should look at the leagues in Japan and South Korea to produce better quality players,” said Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

“They had some chances to score in the second half but they lack the killer instinct to finish it and at this level, you need only that one chance to make the difference in the game.”