MALAYSIAN SOCCEER COACH PASSION FOR THE BEAUTIFUL GAME EARNS HIM GLORY AT SEA GAMES

As a player and a coach, Ong Kim Swee has had a sterling career in Malaysian football since he first made his debut as a midfielder for Malacca in 1989.

Crowning his two decades in the country's mainstream football scene was winning the gold medal at the just-concluded SEA Games for the Harimau Muda team that he had nurtured since 2009.

He had warned the youngsters about the intimidation they were likely to face from the Indonesian fans and that they should be mentally prepared for the worst,

“If you had been aboard the bus with us and experienced the intimidation, you wouldn't have played,” he told the media when they arrived home to a hero's welcome at the LCCT on Tuesday.

The team, however, was only able to rest for half a day as they had to train to face Syria at an Olympics qualifying round yesterday.

“If I had my way, I would want the team to have more rest,” said Ong, who was a member of Malaysia's Barcelona 1992 Olympic team under the legendary Chow Kwai Lam.

Ong, 41, lives with wife Alodle Donna Derick and two children in Kuala Lumpur.

Former PKNS coach Abdul Rahman Ibrahim remembers him attending coaching courses and matches in Spain and Czechosovakia to learn footballing strategies.

“He has done well,” he said, commending him for leading the young tigers to their back-to-back victory in the SEA Games.

Ong, who has also played for Sarawak and Sabah, retired as a player due to knee injuries in 1998 and became Malacca's head coach in 2002 and 2003.

The following year, he trained players for the Football Association of Malaysia, which led him to coaching the national teams over the rest of the decade.

In 2009, Ong replaced Datuk K. Rajagopal as Harimau Muda head coach and won the Malaysia Premier League that year.

In person, though Ong appears authoritative, he is said to be sensitive to his team's concerns.

Dollah explained: “He always listens to the consensus of his team, managers and advisers before he arrives at a decision. That's good management. It gives them room to improve as one cohesive unit.”

SIX BELIEVED DDEAD IN ARIZZONE SMALL PLANE CRASH

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Six people on board a small twin-engine plane appear to have been killed when it crashed in a ball of fire on Wednesday in a remote area of the Superstition Mountains east ofPhoenix, officials said.

Three of the presumed dead were believed to be children who were being flown to a town in Arizona for the Thanksgiving holiday,Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu told reporters.

There were no immediate signs of survivors among the six people thought to have been on the plane, which had refueled shortly before it crashed and ignited a wildfire, officials said.

"At this point, we can't confirm there would be survivors. Our hope is that there would be, but it does not look promising," Babeu said.

The crash occurred in steep, cliff-like terrain near a remote summit in the Superstition Mountains called Flat Iron, said Elias Johnson, a spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. That is about 45 miles east of Phoenix.

Live images on local 12 News showed a fire blazing in a darkened landscape, surrounded by smaller points of flame.

The plane was identified as a Rockwell AC69 that took off from Falcon Field, in the Phoenix valley, said Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Ten search and rescue workers have been dropped into the area near the crash by helicopter to look for survivors, Babeu said.

The plane was registered to Safford, Arizona-based Ponderosa Aviation, an air charter firm. It has eight full-time pilots and has been in operation since 1974, according to the company's website.

"What we understand is that this aircraft flew from Safford to Falcon Field in Mesa (near Phoenix) to pick up children for Thanksgiving, to go back to Safford, so it's heartbreaking if that's the case," Babeu said.

Aside from the three children, the other people who were believed to be on board the plane were a pilot, a mechanic and another adult, Babeu said.

(Reporting by David Schwartz and Tim Gaynor, Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Editing by Cynthia Johnston)