Sarawak's now famous fighting spirit and a double strike by "Big Man" John Hunter made sure that they lived to fight on in the Malaysia Cup semifinals against Singapore Saturday night. Singapore seemed to have Sarawak on the run at the State Stadium with two first half strikes by Abbas Saad and Alistair and some classic soccer by the Lions, but they gave the 40,000 Sarawakian fans something to cheer about. And Sarawak remained unbeaten at home.
Sarawak began as the more efective side, quick to turn possession into raids. Their tactics were easy to read - put pressure on Singapore as quuickly as possible - but not easy to stop. As usual, those high balls were aimed at big John Hunter, with his strike partner, Shamsurin Rahman, also getting his share.
But the Lions were able to absorb everything that was thrown at them for the first 20 minutes. However, Singapore had their anxious moments. In one instance Hunter whipped around in the box to blaze a shot over the bar.
The Lions took time to find their feet on the wet pitch, but when they did the moves begin to flow, their more skilful soccer a contrast to Sarawak's single minded and sraightforwarded style. They passed for balls, prodded for openings, patient enough to wait for the goalscoring chance. That was how the first goal came. A fine three man move on the left from Kadir to Malek to Saswadi had the
Sarawak defence scrambling to cover the gaps only to leave a big one in the centre, with Abbas and Edwards there. A cross, and Abbas nods in the Lions' first goal.
Eleven minutes later, Abbas relayed the ball to Sundram, who moved up the right flank, sees Edwards running into the box, and delivers a perfect cross for him to head in goal no. 2 Sarawak looked disjointed for a while. They clearly missed injured David Evans. Somehow they held on. And they taught the Lions something about fighting spirit. 39th minute. Sarawak's captain Abdul Jalil floated a corner into the box. And big man Hunter rose above the defenders and bacheaded the ball, which slipped through a number of legs before going into the net.
The Sarawak fightback continued after the break and Hunter got another goal. Kadir Yahya fouled Zapri Manai and Jalil, whose throw ins and free kicks have been troubling the Lions, relayed the ball to Sazali Ramli, who floated the ball into the box and was completely covered by Abdul Malek. But, the ball slipped out of his hands and da Big Man naturally scores. That was something that I won't forgive and forget, Malek. Your mistake was worse than Lim Tong Hai's.
Malek fumbled again later. But the Singapore was lucky as the ball slipped out of his hands again, but it hit the post and he was lucky it didn't slip in. At another instant, the ball slipped out of his hands, bounced under his legs and went behind him. He was lucky to have turned arouund fast enough to catch it.
The score remained that way till the final whistle. Lions were lucky. They were lucky coz they didn't suffer the same fate Pahang did when they played here. There a lack of communication between Kadir Yahya and Nazri. More than once, the ball was lost to the Sarawak players when Nazri passed the ball to Kadir or vice versa. That's strange. I've never seen this happened before.
I think I have to take back my words when I said that Sarawak is one of the most aggressive team. In fact they are a good footballing team. Only one yellow card was flashed, and they didn't play dirty. In fact Kedah was more aggressive. Singapore lost most of the aerial duels and Sarawak, without David Evans, played much better than Singapore. They outclassed the Lions. They played better football.
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| Big Buffalo John Hunter |
Sarawak began as the more efective side, quick to turn possession into raids. Their tactics were easy to read - put pressure on Singapore as quuickly as possible - but not easy to stop. As usual, those high balls were aimed at big John Hunter, with his strike partner, Shamsurin Rahman, also getting his share.
But the Lions were able to absorb everything that was thrown at them for the first 20 minutes. However, Singapore had their anxious moments. In one instance Hunter whipped around in the box to blaze a shot over the bar.
The Lions took time to find their feet on the wet pitch, but when they did the moves begin to flow, their more skilful soccer a contrast to Sarawak's single minded and sraightforwarded style. They passed for balls, prodded for openings, patient enough to wait for the goalscoring chance. That was how the first goal came. A fine three man move on the left from Kadir to Malek to Saswadi had the
Sarawak defence scrambling to cover the gaps only to leave a big one in the centre, with Abbas and Edwards there. A cross, and Abbas nods in the Lions' first goal.
Eleven minutes later, Abbas relayed the ball to Sundram, who moved up the right flank, sees Edwards running into the box, and delivers a perfect cross for him to head in goal no. 2 Sarawak looked disjointed for a while. They clearly missed injured David Evans. Somehow they held on. And they taught the Lions something about fighting spirit. 39th minute. Sarawak's captain Abdul Jalil floated a corner into the box. And big man Hunter rose above the defenders and bacheaded the ball, which slipped through a number of legs before going into the net.
The Sarawak fightback continued after the break and Hunter got another goal. Kadir Yahya fouled Zapri Manai and Jalil, whose throw ins and free kicks have been troubling the Lions, relayed the ball to Sazali Ramli, who floated the ball into the box and was completely covered by Abdul Malek. But, the ball slipped out of his hands and da Big Man naturally scores. That was something that I won't forgive and forget, Malek. Your mistake was worse than Lim Tong Hai's.
Malek fumbled again later. But the Singapore was lucky as the ball slipped out of his hands again, but it hit the post and he was lucky it didn't slip in. At another instant, the ball slipped out of his hands, bounced under his legs and went behind him. He was lucky to have turned arouund fast enough to catch it.
The score remained that way till the final whistle. Lions were lucky. They were lucky coz they didn't suffer the same fate Pahang did when they played here. There a lack of communication between Kadir Yahya and Nazri. More than once, the ball was lost to the Sarawak players when Nazri passed the ball to Kadir or vice versa. That's strange. I've never seen this happened before.
I think I have to take back my words when I said that Sarawak is one of the most aggressive team. In fact they are a good footballing team. Only one yellow card was flashed, and they didn't play dirty. In fact Kedah was more aggressive. Singapore lost most of the aerial duels and Sarawak, without David Evans, played much better than Singapore. They outclassed the Lions. They played better football.
But can Sarawak outplay the Lions at Kallang? That night, they weren't at their full strength, while Singapore was. Imagine with the presence of the towering David Evans, can the Lions score two goals against the Bujang Senangs?
Results at a glance....
SARAWAK 2 - 2 SINGAPORE
John Hunter (39th,60th) Abbas Saad (23rd)
Alistair Edwards (34th)
John Hunter (39th,60th) Abbas Saad (23rd)
Alistair Edwards (34th)
Mazlan Wahid Abdul Malek
Roslan Ismail Saswadimata Dasuki
Jeff Curran Jang Jung
Zaidel Sakup Lim Tong Hai
Sazali Ramli Kadir Yahaya
Ong Kim Swee Nazri Nasir
Abdul Jalil Ramli Malek Awab
Mohamad Ali Sapiee Abbas Saad
Zapri Manai V Sundramoorthy
John Hunter Fandi Ahmad
Shamsurin Abdul Rahman Alistair Edwards
(Affendi Julaini 68th)
Roslan Ismail Saswadimata Dasuki
Jeff Curran Jang Jung
Zaidel Sakup Lim Tong Hai
Sazali Ramli Kadir Yahaya
Ong Kim Swee Nazri Nasir
Abdul Jalil Ramli Malek Awab
Mohamad Ali Sapiee Abbas Saad
Zapri Manai V Sundramoorthy
John Hunter Fandi Ahmad
Shamsurin Abdul Rahman Alistair Edwards
(Affendi Julaini 68th)
3 comments:
I remember one Malaysia Cup quarterfinals? between Sarawak and Singapore at the Kallang stadium. Singapore knows how to deal with the injured David Evans who had a groin injury. His name was left out in he team list purposely before the match start by Alan Vest. I remembered during the match, Evans was a liability as the Singapore played low balls into the box with the gangling defender so painfully lost in defence. Sarawak tried hard but lost the match as striker John Hunter and Affendi Julaihi all cried after the whistle went off. Vest was seen pulling a sobbing Affendi by the hands to help him out of the pitch. Sarawak must not forget that surreal scene.
I remember one Malaysia Cup quarterfinals? between Sarawak and Singapore at the Kallang stadium. Singapore knows how to deal with the injured David Evans who had a groin injury. His name was left out in he team list purposely before the match start by Alan Vest. I remembered during the match, Evans was a liability as the Singapore played low balls into the box with the gangling defender so painfully lost in defence. Sarawak tried hard but lost the match as striker John Hunter and Affendi Julaihi all cried after the whistle went off. Vest was seen pulling a sobbing Affendi by the hands to help him out of the pitch. Sarawak must not forget that surreal scene.
Dh lma aku nunggu team sarawak nk mantap kedak knek tok..dh lma dh team sarawak malap,smpey pmain sarawak pn x knal dh beberapa thn ke blkang sblm towk...start thn lepas mula nait..thniah buat team sarawak..steady lh..pmain import pn mantap,guy bwele-joel epalle,pmain import tmpatan gik...just panggil balit sidak joseph kalang tie ya..cnfirm mantap sarawak lak..:-).
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