MACKY SINGH
FOOTBALL ELITE PERFORMANCE COACHING
MALAYSIA WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM 2005 - 2006
Macky has always wanted to return to his birth country to coach, particularly women's football. The opportunity arrived in November 2005. He was very excited to be given the prospect of charting a long-term plan for women's football inMalaysia. He was offered a three month probationary contract with a view to extend for two years. His first task at hand was preparing the Malaysian U19 National Team for the U19 AFC Women's Championships to be hosted byMalaysia in April. He scouted and selected the squad from the Malaysia Women's Games.
"I was amazed the raw potential talent the girls possess, however they lack tactically knowledge and understanding of the game and were not football fit". Malaysia did not have any structured programs and leagues locally, regionally or nationally to develop women's football. Hence when there were tournaments organized (once or twice a year) are the only time they play the game in a structure situation with very limited training and preparation time.
The women's national association organized a three month residential camp so Macky could prepare the team for the Championships; hence requiring relocating all the players and placing them at a new school near the training base.
"We trained twice a day for five days and one session on Saturday with Sunday being their off day. We trained once early in the morning before school and the second after school in the evening. It was a challenge as the players had to juggle training, school and then homework everyday. To their credit the players really enjoyed the opportunity to fulfil their ambition to play football for their country".
Part of the preparation was playing in the Football Association of Singapore Challenge Cup. "I had only one day to prepare the players for our first match as the residential training camp start two days before when all the players were arriving. It didn't give me much time to get to know the players however I used my notes that I made during my scouting at the Malaysian Women's Games to prepare the team for our first match".
The match was played on a Saturday evening in Singapore and the team had to travel by bus for eight hours from our training base to play the match and then get back on the bus to head back straight after the match. "Its crazy to get a professional team to this and then perform effectively in a game, let alone asking 16 and 17 year old girls to do it, but the girls never complained. They enjoyed the experience and opportunity. I was amazed with their attitude and professionalism, it was very positive and refreshing and it made it all worthwhile".
"For our first match in the FAS Challenge Cup we were 45 minutes late and the bus driver got lost, hence the girls had to change in the bus while the driver was trying to find the field. As we did not have time to do a warm-up they got off the bus and onto field for the kick-off. We were down 0 - 4 in the first half but I managed to rally the girls and they performed really well scoring two goals and ended up losing the game 4 - 2". Two week later the team embarked on a similar journey again for their second match in the Cup, this time losing 3 - 2. They were playing against senior women's club teams that have been playing regularly in the FAS Women's Premier League the last five years.
Macky spent most of his training sessions teaching the players team shape, understanding the concept of keeping compact when defending, spreading out when attacking and building their fitness. He also altered their nutritional intake and educated the players about eating healthy as high performance athletes. The players were always will to learning, very polite, polite and were like sponges absorbing information. The team was making great strides in their development.
" I am glad to have the chance to coach a group of young talented, ambitious and polite girls who wanted to represent their country proudly".
During Macky short sting as National Team Head Coach and National Technical Director Women's Program, he managed to lead the amalgamation of the women's national association and the men's national association under one organization as per FIFA mandate. Football Association of Malaysia is now responsible in running both male and female football.