KUALA LUMPUR: Legendary striker Zainal Abidin Hassan said Malaysia need to make every shot count in the Asian Cup because there just won't be many scoring chances.
Zainal, who scored 70 goals in 180 games for Malaysia from 1980-1997, said don't expect the rivals in Doha, Qatar, to make many mistakes.
Zainal said the Malaysian team, returning to the big stage on merit after a 42-year lapse, could be overawed by higher ranked opponents who are all in the world's top 100.
World No. l30 Malaysia will play No. 87 Jordan on Jan 15, No. 86 Bahrain on Jan 20 and No. 23 South Korea on Jan 25 in Group E.
After Malaysia held world No. 91 Syria to a 2-2 draw in a friendly in Doha on Monday, Zainal said: "It's good to see the national team scoring goals, the draw against Syria could give the players a confidence booster."
Malaysia took the lead through Arif Aiman Hanapi (39th minute) but Syria hit back with goals from Pablo Sabbag (70th) and Ibrahim Hesar (74th). Brazilian-born midfielder Paulo Josue netted the equaliser (78th) for Malaysia.
"But we have to keep in mind that most of the other countries in the Asian Cup have more experience than us.
"They will not make a lot of mistakes, which means Malaysia will have fewer chances to score goals, probably three or four clear-cut chances.
"We must make these chances count, we need to be clinical.
"Most of these teams have a prolific scorer. Malaysia, however, don't have a lethal player in this mould.
"The good thing is that we can see Malaysia still have a good record, scoring goals, and we have a few scorers in the team like Akhyar (Rashid), Safawi (Rasid), Darren (Lok), Faisal (Halim), Arif Aiman (Hanapi) and Paulo (Josue).
"But our strikers really need to be clinical in Doha. The chances to score won't be many."
