Just A Few Things - Terengganu Vs. JDT
Credit: MFL
It’s Surely All Over
Terengganu’s defeat at Melaka last week made things more difficult for the Turtles to maintain a title challenge. Now, it’s surely all but over. A seventh league title in a row beckons for the Southern Tigers after a slim 1-0 win and in doing so, opened up an eight point-gap over 2nd place occupied by Perak after their 1-0 win over UiTM while Terengganu drops down the table. They can seal the title with a win over FA Selangor next week who is set to miss Brendan Gan due to suspension and also are greatly struggling to impose themselves should results elsewhere favor them starting with Kedah’s match with FELDA tomorrow.
Safawi’s Reminder
This is the first time we have seen Safawi Rasid starting since the Super League restart having seen Ramadhan Saifullah occupying the right-wing spot. Here, Malaysia’s best player reminded us why he is the best in the country. His pace and off-the-ball movement was on-point tonight as he caused problems down the right flank taking on the full-back. It was Safawi’s anticipation and pace that lead to the only goal of the game as he didn’t stop running to take advantage of the miscommunication between Terengganu’s Argzim Redzovic and goalkeeper Shamirza Yusof’s when the former’s back pass went beyond the incoming keeper to score the strayed back pass into the open net.
Sadly, his night ended early just past the hour mark as he picked up a knock, being replaced by Ramadhan Saifullah who is perhaps seen as his long-term successor. But Safawi has shown us again why he is the best on this night
NafuziBall Takes A Backseat
Terengganu was content to sit back and let JDT have the ball without having to press from the front. Not only that when Terengganu has possession, their attempts at a passing game were well read by the JDT defence thanks to their smart pressing, especially by the lines down the flanks. This forced the ball holder to have to carry the ball out of those tight spots and to be fair, they did Ok in doing so. But perhaps as expected, JDT dominated proceedings but not as authoritative as last week.In the second half, Terengganu looked better with their composure on the ball. They finally gained traction in the game by having their fair share of possession as they looked to penetrate the JDT box while passing around the ball starting out from the back. But because of their lack of a quality final product, the JDT defence had another quiet night as Terengganu’s passing game was not as sharp.
Entahlah Ref…
The referee did not have a good game on this night as there were two extremely key decisions that he got wrong. Firstly, Dominique Da Sylva should’ve been shown a straight red card around 14 minutes having connected a high boot (even with the studs showing) on Natxo Insa’s chest and understandably, Natxo and the other JDT players were furious with the challenge. How was that not a red card is anyone’s guess. Then around ten minutes after the restart, Terengganu should have a penalty when the same players are involved but in different roles with Natxo connecting his foot on Dominique’s backside just inside the box. Our refereeing standards sadly continue to be questionable.
Apa Lagi Ya?
If he is not scoring, Diogo Luis Santo will always be creating chaos up front. After providing three assists last week, Diogo’s presence was a thorn in the Terengganu’s defence backside. The Brazilian was all over the final third as he used his strength to get ahead of his markers to get into promising positions. One example of this was receiving a throw-in by the byline and beating his marker to cut it back for Safawi who had space, only for the shot to be crucially blocked.
Afiq Fazail continues to relish his deep-lying playmaker role as his passes from the middle would set JDT on the way to attacking Terengganu’s final third. He provided at least two key passes in the first half where one of them was the catalyst to the opening goal of the match. Afiq continued to dictate the tempo throughout the match and remained a calm presence in the middle.
Terengganu opted to trust in young wingers Rahmat Makasuf and Syafik Ismail instead of veterans Faiz Nasir and Nasir Basharudin to bomb down the flanks. Both of them have shown glimpses of what they can do, especially for Syafik who perhaps should’ve won a penalty in the first half after he dribbled into the box only for him to get fouled. Both of them did Ok to square up against S. Kunanlan and La’vere Corbin-Ong. But they just didn’t cause enough trouble on the wings.