According to the schedule, Malaysia will face Cape Verde in the first friendly match on May 29 at KLFA Stadium in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. The African team, ranked 72 in the world, is one of the strongest rivals that the Malaysian 131 ranked team faces under the Australian strategist.
"This is a special period for us as the national team. Most of our players are in the mid-season break and most of them have not played an official game in four to five weeks.
"I find this preparation period and our training camp extremely important as we look forward to the important match against Vietnam on June 10," Mr. Cklamovski shared with the New Straits Times.
After the match on May 29, the Malaysian team will meet Cape Verde again in a closed friendly match on June 3. These are 2 very important matches for the team nicknamed Harimau Malaya to review the force and develop tactical options to face the Vietnam team.
The match against Vietnam could be decisive for Malaysia's hope of reaching the 2027 Asian Cup finals in Saudi Arabia.
Cklamovski believes that facing Cape Verde will bring a valuable lesson to his squad.
"We chose Cape Verde because they bring challenges at a high level. They are one of the best performing African countries in the country today, with a squad of all players playing in Europe. They are of real quality and will give us a great opportunity to evaluate ourselves, said the Malaysia coach.
Cape Verde's top stars include Villarreal defender Log Costa, captain Ryan Mendes, player for Turkish club Kocaelispor, veteran goalkeeper Vozinha and Hellas Verona's Dailon Livramento talent...
Cklamovski is determined that only by facing the opposition like that can Malaysia improve its level.
He said: "As a national team, we have to challenge ourselves. If we want to develop into the team we want, we need to get out of our comfort zone, face top teams and learn from them.
When announcing the friendly matches, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) said that these matches are part of a strategy to give the national team "match time and strategic show-off" before the match with the Vietnam team.
The Malaysian team started the Asian Cup qualifying campaign with a 2-0 victory over Nepal in March 2025, while the Vietnamese team soon made their mark with a 5-0 victory over Laos.
The Malaysian team has not had a good head-to-head record against the Vietnamese team, as they lost 7 and drew 1 in the last 8 meetings since 2016.
Harimau Malaya's most recent victory over the Vietnamese team was in December 2014.
