Just A Few Things: Ratchaburi Vs. JDT

Should’ve Been More

That’s more like it. Johor Darul Takzim earned a deserving victory over a laboured Ratchaburi side that never looked like they were going to get anything from this match. JDT took advantage of Ratchaburi’s leaky midfield to get their passes forward and a disorganized defence to bombard the Ratchaburi final third as the Southern Tigers had an overall 82% passing accuracy to show for it as most of their short passes easily spliced apart Ratchaburi’s midfield to be on their way.

JDT had 23 shots on goal with 15 of them happening inside the box. A lack of clinical finish as well as an excellent performance by Ratchaburi keeper Kampol Pathom-attakul who made six saves prevented JDT from scoring more. While JDT will be cursing their lack of finishing on this night, whenever Ratchaburi had possession, it never looked like JDT was going to concede. Overall, JDT is the better side and deserved the win. Though, they really should’ve scored more.

Bergson’s Rotten Luck

If there’s one player that should’ve been on the scoresheet, it’s Bergson Da Silva. He is supposed to be on fire scoring the goals that would make opponents take notice. Yes, it’s been two games, but the Brazilian so far is cursing his misfortunes instead. First, Bergson had a last-minute equalizer cruelly disallowed in the last match Vs. Nagoya Grampus. Here, he had so many chances to score and somehow, the ball wouldn’t go in. A well-struck effort hit the bar followed by narrowly missing a few good chances.

Not even a penalty awarded (Though probably shouldn’t have been given as the replays showed the defender won the ball) got him a goal as Kampol comfortable saved it. Out of the 23 shots JDT had, Bergson was responsible for 12 of them. Almost 50% of the shots with four on-target, five off-target, one hit the woodwork and two getting blocked. You can’t help but feel it’s only a matter of time Bergson breaks his scoring duck in the competition. He deserves a goal based on what has happened so far.

He Never Lost it

There were four changes made to JDT’s starting line-up that lost narrowly to Nagoya Grampus a few days ago. One of those changes head coach Benjamin Mora made was to bring on legendary midfielder Safiq Rahim for Afiq Fazail and Safiq rolled back the years with a great performance. His industrious creativity set JDT on the way as he showed he still has the class that made him well-loved by Malaysians.

The statistics are proof of how great Safiq was in this match. He had 47 touches, 27/36 passes completed at a rate of 75% pass accuracy, three key passes, two duels won and made four recoveries as well as assisting the game’s only goal just when it seemed a golden chance was lost as he was able to keep the ball inside Ratchaburi’s box to set-up the goal. Though missing a free header early in the game was perhaps the only blight in his game here.

However, his performance earned him praise by a lot of people on social media where some even called for him to be recalled to the Harimau Malaya setup. Given what happened, Safiq should at least be in consideration. After all, there was no mention of international retirement on Safiq’s part as far as I’m aware.

The Rest Of The Midfield

Leandro Velazquez & Natxo Insa also deserved praise for a great match. Velazquez scored the game’s only goal. And goodness what a hit it was. As Safiq laid the ball off, Velazquez, with his body facing away from goal, turned and hit the volley square into the top corner perfectly, leaving Kampol no chance to get across and saved it, Well, it was gonna take something special to beat a keeper on the top of his game. That’s not all. The Venezuelan had an 82% pass accuracy, one key pass, 5/9 long balls completed, three successful dribbles and eight ground duels won out of 13. Just like in the last game, Velazquez was all over the pitch to help out in any way he can as the 2015 AFC Cup final hero had another eventful game.

As for Natxo, he was immense. He was all over the midfield as he seeks to destroy whatever Ratchaburi has to offer to go into the midfield. Natxo made 66 touches, seven recoveries and had 95% passing accuracy, the highest of all the other players on the pitch along with making two key passes. His hard work allowed Safiq and Velazquez to create havoc inside Ratchaburi’s

The Journey Continues

Arif Aiman continues to impress. Though not the most standout player on the pitch, he once again showed the confidence and agility to bomb down the right hand side of the field as he caused Ratchaburi left-back Kiatisak Jiamudom something to think about by carrying the ball well. Arif was the one who played the cross in after evading a challenge by the goal line that led to JDT’s sole goal. Stats-wise, Arif had 40 touches, 91.3% passing accuracy and played three key passes.

That’s not all. Arif also did well to track back and defend as he made three tackles as well as showing the courage and composure to win the ball back. He showed that same composure in getting out of tight situations on that right side as he linked up with right-back Matt Davies. Given what we have witnessed so far, Safawi Rasid’s place in the starting line-up looks more and more unassured as long as Arif continues to dazzle.

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