Tuesday, May 20, 1997

It's master v student (The Malay Mail)


AFTER 30 years, the master and the student will pit wits against each
other when Kuala Lumpur host Perak in an M-League match at Merdeka Stadium
tonight.
Perak coach Karl Weigang conducted the FA of Malaysia Advanced Coaching
Certificate course in 1977 under a German Government Exchange programme
and among those attending the course was current KL coach Chow Kwai Lam.
Kwai Lam aced the examinations and also the next two the following two
years, also conducted by Weigang.
Weigang also picked Kwai Lam to assist him.
Among the other local coaches who attened the first course were Mahadi
Yusof (Kelantan), Abdullah Mohamad (Terengganu), M. Chandran (Selangor),
Ahmad Shafie (Kedah), Mohamad Bakar (Penang) and Peter Paul David (Kedah).
Other coaches who graduated from the later courses are Penang's Moey Yok
Ham, Kelantan's Kelly Tham and Johor's K. Sugumaran.
Weigang was also the national coach from 1977 to 1981 and his notable
achievement was seeing the Malaysian team qualify for the Moscow Olympics
which Malaysia boycotted.
Since 1981, Weigang has often visited some of his old friends, incuding
Kwai Lam and Soh Chin Aun.
This year, Weigang surprisingly accepted to coach Perak after giving up
his job as Vietnam's national coach.
It would be interesting to see how the student fares against his master
but Kwai Lam is downplaying the meeting.
"It is not Weigang and me who will be playing. It is what the players do
out there that matters," said Kwai Lam.
"We can only instruct them and give them a game plan but at the end of
the night it is the players who will make the difference."
Kwai Lam said there should be no comparision between him and Weigang.
"There is no such thing as a good coach or a bad coach. The only thing
that exists is a successful coach.
"And there can only be one succesful coach at the end of the season. But
that does not mean the rest of the coaches are bad," said Kwai Lam.
Weigang's priority will be lift his team off the bottom of the table
while Kwai Lam will want to see his team keep up their recent winning
form.
(END)