Just A Few Things: Selangor Vs. Melaka | Piala Malaysia 2020

Calm & Incisive, But...

Selangor looks like they have got used to the way they play. Selangor calmly played from the back as their defence did well to pass around the ball and launch the passes to get the attack going. The transition of their attacks were pretty swift and against a tricky opponent like Melaka, they played their football well and greatly tested the Melaka backline with their direct football. Even their counter attacks were brilliant when Wan Zack Haikal fooled every Melaka defender when he opted to pass to Ifedayo Olusegun instead of shooting so that the Nigerian forward could open the scoring.

Unfortunately, old problems persist again. Despite an Ok performance of Selangor’s central defence pair of Safuwan Baharudin & Taylor Regan, the latter having been a constant thorn on Melaka’s lone striker Uche Agba, they switched off when Melaka scored their only goal where neither of them picked up Agba’s run into the box as the Nigerian put away Syamim Yahya’s cross. Both have been the themes of this Selangor team for quite some time: Brilliant attack but a lopsided defence.

However, Selangor under caretaker head coach Michael Feichtenbeiner, has passed their first tough test to advance to the last eight of the Malaysia Cup. Their next test will be much harder: Against 2016 champions Kedah managed by the excellent Aidil Sharin.

Blunted

To be fair to Melaka, they did test the Selangor backline a few times early on in the match. But they ceded control of it throughout the middle of the match. This allowed Selangor to attack them with some breathtaking passes and it resulted in Selangor scoring the two goals.  After Agba halved the margin, Melaka slowly and eventually retake possession of the match as Selangor had to focus hard to repel their attacks

Even though Melaka had bombarded Selangor’s final third, their final passes have been a letdown. They couldn’t even take advantage of the huge number of set-pieces they’ve won as a majority of them were easily dealt with by either the defence or Selangor goalkeeper Mohd Khairulazhan. Other than Agba’s goal, the two other times Khairulazhan had to pull off great saves were Wan Amirul Afiq’s header from a corner and Khairul Anwar’s spectacular searing attempt from way out. Melaka may have a lion’s share of the game, but they weren’t as threatening compared to their red and yellow counterparts. Despite that, it didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking for Selangor.

The Young Guns

Ahmad Zikri & later coming as a sub, Aliff Haiqal, continue to lead the charge of the young players looking to make their presence known. Zikri once again looked solid on that left back slot and even did a smooth roulette pass late in the match while Aliff did Ok to fill in Sandro’s role as a creative midfielder by playing a few promising penetrative passes that sadly no one was able to pick up. On this night, another young gun was introduced and is perhaps the hottest prospect of them all within the Selangor youth ranks.

Ahmad Danial Asri first made his impact known on the grassroots level being the top scorer of the youth team last year. Over the course of the year, he has further grown to be a lethal striker as he became the top local scorer of this year’s Premier League with six goals to his name. However, he played out wide when he replaced Wan Zack Haikal down on the wings. Even so, he almost got an assist when he found Aliff’s run by the edge of the box, only for the midfielder to unfortunately put a little too much height on his shot. Sadly he didn’t make an impact, but that could well be due to him playing out of position. Maybe we’ll see a much clearer impact if he is deployed up front.

Disciplined Pair

If you are a Melaka fan, there might be a chance you might be nervous that your central defence pairing of Annas Rahmat & captain Jang Suk-won had received yellow cards early in the match. Annas cynically fouled Sandro just as a counter was on and Suk-won getting booked for a coming together with Syahmi Safari before a Melaka corner. Given how Selangor had been a constant threat, there can be a fear that one of them could earn a 2nd yellow.

Thankfully, it didn’t materialize. Both defenders kept their toes up and didn’t give away any needless fouls as they huffed and puffed to keep Selangor, albeit with mixed results. Suk-won in particular could’ve scored early on from a corner when the ball fell neatly for him, but fluffed his shot due to the defensive pressure. The South Korean and the ex-Negeri Sembilan defender however had their own blip when no one picked up Sandro at the far post to double Selangor’s total from Ifedayo’s hopeful cross and both were also caught out when Selangor scored from the counter for the first goal following a Melaka free-kick. But at least they didn’t make any silly fouls that warranted a 2nd yellow.