Just A Few Things: Kedah Vs. Terengganu
Credit: MFL
Turtles Boosted
Oh, how Terengganu needed this. They were on a four match winless run heading into this match, drawing and losing against opponents that they should have got more points out of. They drew three of them (Melaka United, Petaling Jaya City & Sri Pahang ) and surprisingly losing to Sabah, Terengganu saw their excellent early season start disintegrated. Another draw or loss would’ve been damaging to the team’s confidence.
So you can imagine the welcome relief Terengganu had on their faces when they successfully held out a late Kedah charge and sealed the three points. Terengganu were ultimately the better side too. They did well to shackle Kedah’s usually reliable front three, further aided by them having one of those days while their own attacks were far brighter than their counterparts. Though the end left a sour note to the neutrals, Terengganu wouldn’t mind in the end. As for Kedah, well...
Kedah Wants To Forget
This was not a match the Kedah wanted to look back fondly and for very good reason. Firstly, their attack had a torrid evening. Every time they attacked, they usually hit dead ends and in turn, never truly gave Terengganu keeper Suhaimi Husin a trying test despite the talent they have at their disposal. To show how bad it was in the end, Kedah only had three shots throughout the entire second half and two of them only happened in the final ten minutes. Kedah head coach Aidil Sharin perhaps made matters worse for his own team when he took off Rabih Ataya where Kedah sorely needed the X-factor to a laboured attack to find the equalizer. And the worst part out of all this was, this wasn’t the ugliest thing that happened to the Red Eagles.
The figuratively Kedah power plant actually ended the match not one, but two men less following a nuclear-level meltdown. Firstly, substitute midfielder Fadzrul Danel pushed the referee in reaction to a certain incident that we will go into later. Just one minute later, Kedah found themselves down to nine men. As Kedah were looking to make a last ditch surge by winning an aerial ball, Rodney Celvin did not take too kindly to Engku Shakir’s fair challenge and proceeded to kick out at him as they were on the ground. So again, the red card was warranted to the on-loan Selangor defender who knew he was in trouble looking at his body language. Kedah not only lost ground to the top, but they also lost two reliable players for the next match. And in Fadzrul’s case, he could be facing a worse punishment.
Terengganu’s Wingers Want To Remember
Other than the fact they really needed a win and they duly got it, there is another positive for the Turtles coming out from this match. Their young bombarding wingers deserve recognition for a great night out down on the flanks. Hakimi Abdullah and Faisal Abdul Halim were immense on their respective wings as they gave Kedah’s full-backs Ariff Farhan and Fandi Othman a lot of work defending.
Hakimi was a livewire down on the left. He showed so much courage running at the defence and dribbling with the ball. He also proceeded to get into very promising positions just as an attack is getting more threatening on the Turtles part. Hakimi can find himself in promising positions often as Terengganu attack. So he can count himself unlucky his well-taken free-kick in the first half hit the crossbar. One thing he needs to improve though is his decision-making. But the winger is still young and if he improves on that aspect, we will see another next best thing in the making.
As for Faisal Abdul Halim, he was hard working throughout the entire match. Bombing down the right and also tracking back when out of possession. While Hakimi was the brighter of the two, Faisal played a crucial part in getting Terengganu’s second and ultimately the winner on the hour mark. Taking on Fandi Othman on the right, Faisal played a perfect pass to right-back Azam Azmi who was overlapping before he proceeded to score.
Two Handball Incidents, Two Different Outcomes
Given how it happened, it was understandable Kedah reacted the way they did shortly after. Why? A similar incident happened and it went against them just before half-time. As Shahril Saa’ri spilled Hakimi Abdullah’s low cross to the middle of the box, chaos ensued as “Poppa Pump Besar” Ariff Farhan fell down and was penalized for handball. It was an unfortunate incident as he looked like he disrupted Carli De Murga just as he was about to get a shot away. At the same time though, Ariff was at point blank range when De Murga collected the ball and couldn’t get his arms out of the way in time. And the yellow card given to the Kedah right-back was just harsh too. Nevertheless, the penalty was given and David Da Silva duly scored to equalize.
If you compare that with the incident on the final minute of stoppage time, you would understand why Kedah were fuming. Substitute Terengganu defender Sharul Nizam Ros Hasni fell down and in such a coincidence, found himself handling the ball in the process which perhaps took the sting out of Rozaimi Abdul Rahman’s pass and arguably changed the trajectory slightly as the pass was approaching Kpah Sherman just in front of goal. Though Sharul didn’t know any better as his hand was behind him just as he was looking to block Rozaimi’s pass.
Both handball incidents happened in rather bewildering circumstances for the players at the centre of them. But Sharul was definitely the luckier of the two defenders that the penalty wasn’t given against him. Even so, it was still unacceptable Fadzrul reacted the way he did when the spot-kick wasn’t given for Kedah.
Biggest Winners? JDT & Penang
Kedah definitely were looking like the team to give Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) a run for their money, or rather, the Super League championship. But this setback will leave JDT even more giddy with excitement. Heading into this match, Kedah were just one point behind the Southern Tigers and now could find themselves going further behind with a potential gap of four points between the two sides. Of course, JDT will have to go through an acid test against PJ City who has been quite unpredictable against them recently. Not only that, they are also led by P. Maniam, who actually has a good record against JDT when he was with Selangor in 2017 with two wins, a draw and a loss across all competitions. So it will be interesting to see if PJ City play spoiler and continue to be JDT’s bogey team.
That’s not all. With Kedah dropping points to a team who were a few points behind them heading into this weekend, this also presented neighbours Penang a huge opportunity to not only overtake Kedah, but also take second place all to themselves. It will be a testament to the tremendous work Thomas Trucha has done. Who are Penang’s opponents this weekend? A winnable home match against Sabah who has been dysfunctional lately. Don’t be surprised if Penang finishes the week just behind JDT.
