The Art of Defense

I am often seen as a dirty player ever since I played here at Sunway SPK but totally not in my good old times cos Ong Yong Tat holds that honour haha. I am accused of grabbing, pushing, high boots and tackling on people by Uncle Kenny. What the hell, Uncle Kenny must see how Mr Ong plays.

I disagree that on grabbing and agree on the rest. I am only pushing only when the opponents are just shoulder by shoulder and using all my body strengths to get the ball square and fair. I never bang them and make them falling apart cos that's a foul.

High boots, yes sometimes it might get a little too high but I have not kicked on someone's chest or head so far in my games. No worries.

Meanwhile tackling to regain possession is a good fine line between successful and failure. This is what I am going to say in this very post.

I cannot understand why dribbling is always considered the beauty of the game and tackles are not by many people. In fact I think tackling is harder to do cos perfect dribbling needs only body strengths and good footwork. Even FIFA do that by awarding the Player of the Year awards to mostly midfielders and strikers, and overlooking defenders most of the time.

Yes I am aggressive because I have the winning mentality, just that I do not score goals. My job is to defend and win every ball back in order to give my teammates a chance to attack. How are you going to score if you have the opponents keep attacking and you don't even have the ball under your feet? If you can name me any defensive players that is unaggressive I will stop playing football. I have never done anything that breaking leg so stop saying me playing dirty. I am no Roy Keane.

I am kinda the thinnest of all and yet I am accused being rough. Your huge body can simply shield the ball and then get away from me. If you were running too slow or the ball is getting away, I just try my very best to clear it or regain possession.

Come on this is a man's game! Play like a man. Bruises or bleeding, so what? I have to say that the football quality around me is quite low. I enjoy a lot playing with UUFC and with Malay and Indian adults cos they were very competitive. The last time I played with Jabil employees they were top class and I was a noob.

What's rough? For example, loser like Roy Keane that kept injuring people (for once he ended a player's career) and profanities was all he knew is the answer. Otherwise it is not.

I am not trying to say I am very good cos I had been on the losing side many times and I am still learning the game. I am just determined to win games and have a lot of passion about football.

Oh between I am a Malaysian. Football is totally a mess here and that's a real shame!