Just A Few Things: Sri Pahang Vs. Johor Darul Takzim
Credit: MFL
Bersabarlah, JDT
It could be because they’re getting used to the later-than-usual kick-off time throughout bulan Ramadhan once again, but Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) weren’t exactly overrunning Pahang. They didn’t pepper the Pahang box with shots despite Pahang heading into this match in bad form. But JDT were content in keeping possession and not letting Pahang get a sniff at getting the ball. It wasn’t their usual best here, but perhaps they were patient in their approach here and taking their time to get inside Pahang’s box. The stats showed it wasn’t even close between the two sides as perhaps JDT deserves the win.
When Pahang went down to 10-men on the 70th minute, it was pretty much smooth sailing for the JDT cruiseliner to arrive at the winners’ dock safely. It wasn’t pretty from JDT, but they got the job done in the end.
Lost Elephants
While JDT were not their usual brightest, Pahang’s own lightbulb was even more dimmer. They continuously find themselves on the backfoot and they had trouble winning back possession. And whenever they do have possession, they severely lack the quality to do anything about it. Sharul Nizam’s shot on the 21st minute was the only golden chance Pahang had in the entire 90 minutes as JDT keeper Farizal Marlias was largely untroubled.
Yehven Bokhashvili and his replacement later, Abdul Malik Mat Ariff were often isolated and neither striker had even a shot towards goal at all with four of Pahang’s shots were taken by their midfielders. And when it did look promising for the Tok Gajah on two occasions, defender Adam Nor Azlin played spoiler by timing his tackles perfectly and winning possession back. Despite a lacklustre display, there was still a glimmer of hope for Pahang to snatch something with the score still at 1-0 to the visitors. But all hopes were extinguished when Ezanie Mat Salleh recklessly fouled Gonzalo Cabrera and was duly given his second yellow card in the process.
Normally this fixture is where we see Pahang would usually give JDT something to think about given the entertaining history between these two sides in the last few years. But overall, this match was anything but magical, especially from Pahang’s standpoint.
Bergs-on It!
JDT’s Brazilian starlet Bergson Da Silva continues to prove he is a key component in JDT’s front three. He may be scoring a lot of goals, but if he is not, then you can count on to use his physique to keep the ball in play and it proved to be important for the opening goal. Collecting the ball by the near post, Bergson’s brilliant technique on the ball enabled him to cut it back across goal. With the Pahang defence surprised Bergson got the pass away, it allowed Afiq Fazail’s touch to divert the ball’s trajectory for Leandro Velazquez for a simple close-range finish.
Throughout the match, Bergson would occasionally drop deep to keep the play going and also for the off-chance to drag a Pahang defender out of position to allow either winger to attack the space left behind by that said defender. Despite his work-rate though, Bergson strangely never had a shot inside the box in almost the entire match… until the 94th minute. Nazmi Faiz’ clever flick finds the run of Bergson into the box, who matches it with some flicks of his own to perfectly position himself to coolly finish past Zarif Irfan to really ensure the three points are safe and ready for delivery to Johor Bahru. It’s now nine goals in seven league appearances so far for the on-loan Fortaleza striker as he is perhaps the brightest of all the 22 players on that pitch.
Guess Who’s Back?
Shortly after Ezanie’s sending off, JDT head coach Benjamin Mora decided it was time to bring on the nation’s best player. After an injury layoff, Safawi Rasid makes his return as he replaces who is perhaps his deputy, Arif Aiman. Safawi wasted no time in getting into the action as he was fouled by Lee Tuck just by he half-space on the right minutes after his introduction. While not as impactful as he would’ve hoped, he did show some small glimpses of what he can do down on the right-wing.
However, he only just came back into the fray, so it’s gonna take more minutes to finally see the Safawi we all know and admire. But with his return, he’s going to give Mora a headache (And a good kind of headache too) since he also has Arif and Mohamadou Sumareh at his disposal. Nevertheless, it’s great to see Safawi back in action albeit for just 20 minutes and hopefully, he’ll gradually return to his best in time for the World Cup qualifiers and JDT’s AFC Champions League campaign.
