It wasn't the start of the journey that Malaysia Under-23 head coach Ong Kim Swee wanted for this team for the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
First of all the squad had to be split into two traveling teams on different flights, one at 8:25am and the other at 11:05am on Saturday. But delays to the first flight meant that the later flight eventually took off earlier than the first one. Then upon arrival in Manila, the traffic woes further complicated matters on the ground.
But all that is increasingly becoming part and parcel of a multi-events competitions like the SEA Games and Kim Swee will not let that disturb his preparations as he looks to pit his wits against a familiar opponent in Velizar Popov who is the head coach of Myanmar U23, having formerly taken charge of Kelantan in the Malaysia Super League.