Just A Few Things: Perak Vs. Kedah

Credit: MFL

Until The End

Perak started off brightly in the first 25 minutes. It was all them as they had an estimation of 95% of attacks in favor of them within their time period while Kedah had trouble in getting through the Perak half. Then against the run of play, Kpah Sherman put The Eagles ahead after outmuscling Idris Ahmad and rounded Hafizul Hakim despite being alone against three defenders. It became more difficult for the Bos Gaurus when Kedah carved them up to score their second minutes after their first when Baddrol Bakhtiar’s incisive through pass found Fadzrul Danel who attacked the empty space inside the Perak box before he slammed it into the roof of the net.

But Perak was in this position before when they drew 3-3 at Pahang last week coming from 3-0 down and they stormed back again here scoring two goals just before half-time. Perak continued to find that third goal but it was Kedah who got it instead thanks to Renan Alves’ thundering header. It was a massive setback, a setback that Perak couldn’t get themselves out of no matter what they did. They fought to the end, but sadly for them, they got nothing to show for as Kedah sealed 2nd spot while Perak dropped to 4th after Terengganu’s 2-1 win over Pahang.

Standing-In Captain Stands Out

With Shahrul Saad absent for some reason, Brazilian midfielder Leandro Dos Santos was given the captain’s armband. He repaid Mehmet Durakovic’s faith with a great performance. The midfielder was up for it throughout the match being an excellent engine in the middle of the pitch as he and Kenny Pallraj kept their discipline to keep the midfield line in shape most of the times when Kedah had possession. At the same time, the midfielder bought the amount of fire to power a steam-engine train by the name of Perak with his grit and strength that had rubbed off on the whole team here.

It was Leandro got both of Perak’s goals. First from a retaken penalty which we’ll go into later and he got his head on Rafiuddin Rodin’s in-swinging free-kick after Renan Alves missed the ball completely. His spirited character throughout the match was summed up in one moment when he got in Renan’s face shortly after he scored the second and got booked in the process. Looking back on his performance, it’s no wonder Durakovic chose him to be the captain tonight.

So Close, Eky…

Heading into the final matchday, Shahrel Fikri was leading the golden boot race, but by only a small margin of one goal ahead of Selangor’s Ifedayo Olusegun. When Ifedayo scored a hat-trick last night against Felda United, it got difficult for the striker to get back on top to win the golden boot considering the nature of Perak’s opponents. He had a golden opportunity to score one of the two needed when Perak won a penalty, but saw his spot-kick saved by Kedah keeper Azri Abdul Ghani, only for the linesman to flag that Azri’s feet were off the line (Which was the correct decision). Although, Eky wasn’t given the chance to retake it.

There just wasn’t enough service to provide for Eky and even when he gets it, he either fluffs it or gets his shots off-target with only a few bright spots in between. It just wasn’t Eky’s night overall following a lacklustre performance. However, throughout this season, Eky has definitely proven he is an excellent center-forward and surely a solution  to the national set-up’s long-lasting center forward depth problem and a worthy option to lead the attack.

Kipre On The Wings

It’s weird seeing prolific center-forward, Kipre Tchetche down on the wings due to head coach, Aidil Sharin changing up his formation from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 since the league restart. It’s been a mixed bag so far for the Ivorian playing in his new role. He was at first put on the right wing but showed little effect. Then he was shifted to the left while Faizat Ghazli was slotted in the right. In this match though, Kipre was bright in almost the entire 90 as he strutted his stuff down the wings.

Kipre displayed the flair associated with modern wingers to beat defenders, especially by the byline, also showed excellent strength to shake off defenders looking to pressure him and being in promising positions to play out the next pass around the Perak box. He was the one who started the play that led to Kedah’s second goal when he played the key pass from the left to Baddrol at the center before the Kedah captain assisted Fadzrul. The Ivorian’s performance against Perak  is certainly something Aidil can work on. But that depends on the next point.

Is Aidil Staying Or Going?

Last year, these two sides met in the FA Cup final to determine now only the winner of the tournament, but also who gets to represent Malaysia in the AFC Champions League play-offs. For the second year running, Kedah once again denied Perak entry into a continental competition. To be fair on both teams, no matter who got second, they showed they deserved to be in the AFC Cup given the amount of talent they have and the pedigree of their respective head coaches especially Kedah’s Aidil Sharin.

For Kedah, it’s vital for them to try to keep Aidil around for another season at least after uncertainty sprouted following his interview with 1playsports last month. He has experience in the AFC Cup before with Singapore’s Home United twice in 2017 & 2018 where he took them to their best finish in the interzone semis in 2018. Though that yearthey were infamously KO’d by North Korea’s April 25 after an 11-1 aggregate loss following a 9-1 defeat at Pyongyang in the second leg. Nevertheless, the path Home United took then was rather difficult having to face the likes of Philippines’ Ceres-Negros & Indonesia’s Persija Jakarta on the way.

If Kedah wants to make it far in the AFC Cup, they need to convince Aidil to stay. But with offers coming from other clubs, it could be difficult to do so depending how much resources they have and how cooperative they are to help out Aidil.