Just A Few Things: Selangor Vs. FELDA United

Credit: FA Selangor

Didn’t Go As Plan

So much hype was generated following a bright and positive pre-season campaign before tonight. So you can’t really blame the fans for being optimistic about Selangor’s chances against a FELDA United side who had to release most of their star players of last year due to financial constraints. But the result was not what every Selangor fan had in mind and it bought everyone back to earth.

Antonio German set Selangor on their way with a low strike just before half-time and given the way they were playing, Selangor can’t help but feel that they can score a second one. But then they conceded and they couldn’t score more as some of their attacks were sadly wasted, saved brilliantly or the FELDA defence did their job.

The result bought the Red Giant army back to earth and has bought them a sense of cautiousness at least. It’s a short trip via the Federal Highway towards Petaling Jaya next for Selangor. There they visit the other promoted side, the recently rebranded PJ City FC, lead by a familiar face of one of their ex-head coaches, K. Devan who won back-to-back Super League titles with Selangor in 2009 & 2010. So the Red Giants have to be on their toes a lot higher next week.

One Of Those Days

All eyes were on Selangor’s sensational Spaniard, Rufino Segovia to get his 2019 season up and running following a goal-crazy 2018. But sadly, he had one of those days where he couldn’t get the attack going. Despite the number of times Selangor went forward to threaten, Rufino was strangely anonymous. Not only that, when he does have the ball, he was guilty of wasting those attacks by dilly-dallying with the ball a bit too much and slowed down the tempo as a result.

It doesn’t help matters when you have a defender like Thiago Junio looking to cause grief too by going body-to-body towards you. The Spaniard cuts a frustrated figure and hopefully for the fans, this will be one of his rare off-days throughout the year.

Faiz Everywhere

However there was a Red Giant, or rather, a Red Mini Giant so to say, that had everyone in the Shah Alam Stadium exciting. Faiz Nasir was all over the FELDA half in the whole match. He buzzed around like a bee and successfully annoyed the FELDA defence. With such unpredictability, some FELDA players wind up fouling him and by doing so, created some promising situations for Selangor.

It was Faiz Nasir who set up German for the opener as he found himself so much space to provide the winger. Sure he was also guilty of wasting the ball a few times, but he has that eagerness to make amends and win the ball back despite his small stature. The fans have a right to be optimistic about the ex-Terengganu player after this match.

Hadin For Them

FELDA provided a great fight, but the one standout from their forward line was captain Hadin Azman. He created chaos down on the wings and Azreen Zulkafli was provided to task to stop his influence. However, when the key moment came for FELDA, Azreen was caught out of position. Hadin had some space to run into on the left side. Centre-back Michal Nguyen had to cover for Azreen, but failed to do so as Hadin beats him.

It should’ve been impossible to score by the goal-line, but Hadin’s shot somehow went past Mohd Khairulazhan inside his near post. Granted, the Selangor keeper should’ve done a whole lot better guarding his near post, but it’s perhaps nothing short of what Hadin deserved after a bright outing. Hadin found himself on the fringes last year, but the FELDA captain benefitted from the exodus of players as he showed why he should’ve started a lot more matches in his preferred winger position last season.

Getting There Surely

Despite the somewhat disappointing draw, there were plenty of positives for these teams who are in a transition phase. Selangor looked lively trying to penetrate the FELDA box and tried to play with immense creativity, while Taylor Regan was one looked so commanding, really getting in there to clear any impending danger and also become the ball provider from the back, the midfield was full of energy with Faiz, Halim Saari & Endrick Dos Santos doing what they needed to do whether is to keep the attack going or huffing & puffing to win the ball back.

FELDA on the other hand looked very menacing on the counter lead by Hadin and were able to create some of their own promising chances a few times but failed to finish them off. A team depleted most of their squad from a stellar last season, it was encouraging that FELDA gave Selangor a good fight. Also, Norazlan Razali had gave FELDA a great first impression by haunting his former side by denying Selangor three great chances, two of them from substitute Nurridzuan Abu Hassan.

Both are on the rebuilding process, but given how they performed, it looks like they’re heading in the right direction in terms of what we’ve seen on the pitch.