BY James Kon

The inability to adapt to cold weather is a reason for Brunei Darussalam’s national under-20 (U20) team’s poor performance in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U20 Asian Cup Qualifiers.

This was said by Brunei U20 coach Haji Faizalani bin Haji Abdul Ghani after the team returned to the Sultanate yesterday. The team lost all matches in the disappointing campaign at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Brunei was beaten 5-0 by United Arab Emirates on September 14, followed by 8-0 crushing to Iran on September 16 and 6-0 lost to host Kyrgyzstan on September 18.

Haji Faizalani said the players couldn’t adapt to the weather condition in Kyrgyzstan causing them to have difficulties in breathing.

“The weather was cold and very windy. On top of that, the opponents were of higher levels. We are proud that the players put up a good fighting spirit.

“Despite breathing problems, our players tried their best to compete with much stronger opponents with professional football players,” said the coach.

“Now that we have seen the team in action, we have identified room for improvement. An issue is the lack of experience in tournaments. Therefore, we need to compete in more competitions.

“The young players are Football Association of Brunei Darussalam’s (FABD) assets and with continuous training and participation in tournaments, the squad will improve,” said the coach.

The national U20 squad will compete in the Sarawak Youth U20 Invitational next month.

The team was welcomed by FABD executive committee members at the Brunei International Airport.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin