Just A Few Things: Selangor Vs. Melaka

Credit: Selangor FA

Baru Betul

Signing Nigerian winger, Ifedayo Olesegun, surely would alleviate the headache of not having a proper winger on that right-flank. But after what we’ve seen, head coach B. Sathianathan perhaps should’ve done this more often before the window opened as a short-term solution. And by ‘this’, I mean Syahmi Safari starting as a right-wing.

That along with Sean Eugene Selvaraj as the main focal point of attack, looks like the balance has restored. At least with Sean’s presence along with Sandro backing him up at attacking midfield, Selangor at least has all avenues to go at it. But it all went downhill since Melaka scored the equalizer.

Too Shallow

The good news for Selangor is that there’s a lot of creativity to go around within their opponents’ final third. But what is the bad news for them? No one seems to be able to finish off the final product. If you want a factory of goals, you need someone to be at the end to finish off the product and not let the people in charge of the middle of the process to cover for that almost all the time.

Rufino Segovia’s injury has proven to be a lot detrimental than perhaps everyone expected. There was a lot of ball movement going on, but once Sean Eugene was subbed off in danger of getting a second booking, things went back to the lopsided offence it was. When they want to get it inside the box, especially if they want to cross, almost no Selangor player is there to get something on it. Selangor cannot wait for Rufino’s recovery and has to go in for a centre-forward in this window, fast.

Nama Dia Reichelt

Melaka winger Patrick Reichelt has been one of the best signings for this season. The Philippines international has contributed a large chunk of Melaka’s goals and who knows where Zainal Abidin Hassan’s men could be without him. Along with keeping A. Namathevan very busy, he continued his fine form when he scored the equalizer.

The way it happened must have been divine intervention for Reichelt. Nazrin Zawi did well to improvise to avoid Syahmi’s sliding challenge by the goalline. From Reichelt’s point-of-view near the goalmouth, Nazrin’s pass would’ve been blocked by at least one of Taylor Regan & Michal Nguyen. But for some reason or another, both Selangor defenders got drawn to Casagrande and it allowed Nazrin’s ball to reach Reichelt who couldn’t ask for an easier chance.

Reichelt could’ve been more potent on the left to give Namathevan more trouble had Zainal not occasionally go for wing rotation between Reichelt and Nazrin, but it technically did pay off when the two combined for the equalizer.

Apek to The Rescue

The result could’ve been so much different had it not been for Melaka keeper, Khairul Fahmi (AKA Apek). Melaka have to thank him for making those crucial saves to deny or at least disrupt Selangor’s chances. He’ll be frustrated that he kept out Sandro’s effort but the not Syahmi’s rebound effort shortly after. But he made up for it in the second half.

He was able to keep the score level on 72 minutes by first denying K. Sarkunan’s stinging shot at a tight angle from the right and quickly swiped the ball away from Syahmi before the makeshift winger could convert yet another rebound effort. He then spilled Syazwan Zainon’s low cross about 10 minutes later, but recovered quickly to prevent Sandro scoring. Melaka was able to storm the weather and they have Apek to thank for steering the ship from the rocks of defeat.