NST Online: Sports
NST Online: Sports |
| Football: Defence to get wake-up call Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:38 PM PDT 2011/07/05 K. Rajagobal In the first leg in Bukit Jalil, Helmi Remeli and Amirulhadi Zainal were both found wanting in the right-back position and second leg replacement Mahalli Jasuli did no better when his mistake led to Taiwan's second goal. Even experienced centre-back Aidil Zafuan Radzak admitted to playing below par while his partner Fadhli Shas gave away a penalty and was replaced in the 77th minute by Muslim Ahmad.
"As a coach, I don't take any defeat easily. But I have to remain calm because we achieved our aim of making it to the next round. "I'm not happy with how we played and we need to fix our mistakes and get our confidence back. We have time to work on things until we play Singapore (on July 23 and 28)," said Rajagobal.
"The defenders were caught napping. After we took the lead twice, we sat back. Individual mistakes also came in. Mahalli, I have told him a thousand times not to hold onto the ball. "In the ensuing panic, Aidil let his man escape him. We gave away three penalties and did not play as we should have," added Rajagobal.
Rajagobal could squeeze in another international friendly before the Arsenal match with Qatar and Laos expressing interest. The national team will not play the friendly against Chelsea on July 21, with the national Olympic team set to be the English club's opposition. |
| Football: Kelantan warned to be on guard Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:35 PM PDT 2011/07/05 Kelantan coach M. Karathu briefs his players during training in Kota Baru yesterday. Kelantan only need a draw in their fi nal match to win the Super League title for the fi rst time but tomorrow's opponents Sabah have warned them not to celebrate too soon. — Picture by Fathil Asri That is the advice from Sabah head coach Justin Ganai for Kelantan who only need a draw in Likas tomorrow to become Super League champions for the first time. Justin, who took over from Gary Micheal in early May, said many teams have come to Sabah and returned home empty-handed.
"We have qualified for the Malaysia Cup but with talks about having fewer teams in the Super League next year, we have no choice but to distance ourselves from the bottom four teams by collecting full points." Justin, however, admitted that it would not be easy to tame the determined league leaders even if playing at home.
Meanwhile, Kelantan coach M. Karathu said Kelantan will play their normal brand of football against Sabah. "This is just another game and we are not going to do anything different. A draw should be enough for us to winthe Super League trophy as long as Selangor do not beat Perak by more than a dozen goals," said Karathu.
Karathu confirmed that except for Norshahrul Idlan Talaha and S. Chanturu, who played for the national team in the World Cup qualifiers against Taiwan on Sunday, the rest of the team are looking forward to end the season on a high. "Three of our players in the national team including goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat were just warming the bench in Taipei, so they will play their parts in the match against Sabah," said the coach. "The supporters are also eager to see us win the Super League title and I understand hundreds of them will be at Likas Stadium to cheer us on." Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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