Just A Few Things: Terengganu Vs. Penang

Air Assault

For all their defensive discipline that helped them propel to an improbable victory over Johor Darul Takzim (JDT), it seems Terengganu has left almost all of it back at the Stadium Sultan Ibrahim. Terengganu may have overexerted their focus in keeping any threat out when they were at Johor Bahru last week, but even then, the way they conceded all four goals in a similar fashion has to be concerning. Penang duly made use of one of their key strengths while taking advantage of Terengganu’s weakness: Aerial duels.

All four of Penang’s goals came as a result of air deliveries. The first two were products of corner kicks that weren’t dealt with properly (More on this later) in the first half and the next two goals were just criminal from Terengganu’s standpoint. Casagrande is known for his strength in the air and has been scoring headers freely throughout the season. So you can only have one guess what happened next whenever Casagrande was left on his own. Two headers scored by the Brazilian as a result snuffed out any attempts at a comeback and seal an astonishing victory.

Sheri-ng The Joy

For almost everything that is going right for Penang so far this season, there was one player that has been struggling to make an impact… Until now. Young Tajikistan forward Sheriddin Boboev has not exactly set the league alight, but he picked the right time to emerge and contributed greatly to Penang’s victory.

First, he easily shrugged off Arif Fadzilah to score a somewhat easy header to open his season account from Endrick Dos Santos’ corner. And then the roles reversed when he played provider (Whether it was intentional or not, we’ll leave it up to you) by pouncing on a loose ball after Casagrande’s header was well saved from a corner. The forward then attempted to get the ball in from a tight angle and wind up assisting Endrick Dos Santos to head the ball in from a tight angle.

The lack of goal contributions before may have hampered Boboev’s confidence, but goodness he needs them. And none too soon as well given Penang is making an improbable push for the summit, so they need everyone to be at the top of their game.

Adjusting To The Situation

Penang head coach Thomas Trucha perhaps has got the better of his counterpart, Nafuzi Zain when it comes to setting up defensively in the first half. The Turtles, particularly their wingers Hakimi & Faisal Abdul Halim, was struggling to break through Penang’s final third. This is due to Penang setting up wide and preventing any space for the Terengganu wingers to utilize. It doesn’t help Terengganu employed a short-passing game which makes it difficult to string a passage of play to break through Penang’s disciplined 4-4-2 defensive shape.

When the 2nd half came about, Nafuzi tweaked the Turtles approach simply by playing more direct at a higher tempo while urging players to run and quickly find spaces to attack as well as bringing on Faiz Nasir who can dribble his way past defenders for Nik Akif. It worked to some degree. The approach unnerved the Penang defence as they had trouble maintaining their shape due to the Terengganu players getting permission to roam from their position. As a result, Terengganu had doubled their shot tally in just the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half and deservedly pulled a goal back due to a lively spell.

Terengganu had a plan and it showed it worked when they pulled one back. Sadly, they undermined themselves by conceding two goals shortly after scoring as they take mental damage that affected their hunt for a comeback.

See Yourself Out, Terengganu

Every time Terengganu takes a shot on target, they wind up getting themselves kicked out from Penang’s final third and have to it all again. Penang can thank their goalkeeper, Bryan See Tian Keat to be their reliable final line of defence. Terengganu had 11 shots on target out of 17 shots. While three of those shots on-target were blocked, seven of them were saved by Bryan.

Bryan had a largely uneventful first half. But was called upon late in the half to pull off a great save to come across and deny David Da Silva’s powerful header towards the far post. Bryan then had to make a few further excellent stops by denying the likes of Hakimi Abdullah and Makan Konate where both of whom had tremendous chances to score Terengganu’s second. Bryan so far has proved to be an excellent stand-in for the injured Samuel Sommerville, but when the Australian-Malaysian keeper does come back, Trucha may have a selection headache to deal with.

Hakimi’s Energy

If there was ever one positive coming from that match for Terengganu, it’s Hakimi Abdullah. The left-winger, despite a troubled first-half, was pivotal in Terengganu’s attempted comeback in the second half by making runs on the in-laps and through the half-spaces. Basically, his energetic movement made the Penang defence keep their guard up.

It was gonna take something special to beat a rock-solid Bryan See and that was what Hakimi delivered when he got space to launch a superb strike beyond Byran’s reach. He could have scored the equalizer after being teed up by Konate’s brilliant backheel, only to be thwarted by Bryan who read the situation. Unfortunately, Penang struck their 3rd and 4th goal shortly afterwards. Despite the bleak situation Terengganu find themselves in shortly after the goal, Hakimi still kept going to help narrow the margin. Alas, his goal is the only one they got, but he can still hold his head up high for a good performance.

The Race Heats Up

If you say you expect Penang to be in contention for the Super League title at some point during this season before it started, either you are out of your mind or you somehow time travelled from the future. Yet, here we are surprised once again to where the Panthers are now at the table. Penang is incredibly within distance to the summit of the league table as they leapfrogged Terengganu to third and only two points behind the leaders, JDT.

Maybe we are all so used to JDT dominating the league with ease for the past few seasons that we find ourselves in shock at how close the top four looks as the gap between first and fourth is only three points. Even so, when was the last time we’ve seen the top four this close at any point in the last few years? It remains to be seen whether this situation will last throughout the season as things can change after a matchday. But for the neutrals, they will say: May it continue until the very end.

THIS ARTICLE IS POWERED BY CYBERLYNX INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE: EDUCATION FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM