26 Aug Malaysia v Australia

The Socceroos will reportedly play a friendly against world No.146 Malaysia in Sydney on October 7 ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Oman four days later.

The vice-president of the Football Association of Malaysia, Datuk Subahan Kamal, has been quoted as saying Malaysia will travel to Australia to play the Socceroos on the day before the scheduled start of the A-League season.

“We received an invitation to hold the national team friendly against Australia last week,” he said on the team’s official Twitter stream.

“The FAM agreed it is difficult for us to be given the chance to play a team which played in the World Cup like Australia.”

“We’ve never played Australia before and they have quality players like Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill. That’s a big challenge.”

“Australia have chosen us as the right team for their preparations for World Cup qualification.”

Malaysia is already out of the running for World Cup qualification having lost to Singapore in qualification in late July.

Their highest-ever ranking was as world No.77 in 1993 and missed qualification for this year’s Asian Cup.

They played in the 2007 Asian Cup as one of the four hosts but lost all three games, scoring just one goal and conceding 12.

FFA has been contacted for comment on the announcement from the FAM.

The reported timing of the match all but rules out FFA changing the A-League schedule to accommodate the much-anticipated debuts of Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton in the season opener between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC at Etihad Stadium. www.portal.com