as i expected. the 5th duric first leg goal made it a tad too tricky for us. If the game ended at 4-3, i felt like we have won already. we dont have to be that gung-ho to find the second goal tonight... by our first goal last night, the ball will be in Singapore's court..
Our patern before was always to bring a lead from home to the away leg which we always successfully defend by the scruff of our neck. But this time we got the taste of our own medicine. They have the 2 advantage and its up to us to grab it from them.
Singapore definately has better players than us. That is a given. But we have no qualm in beating team better than us before. Provided we have these players to stand a chance ;-
Nor Shahrul
Safee Sali
Safiq Rahim
Khairul Fahmi
Aidil Zafuan
Even with 4 of them we can win the AFF Cup already. Sadly during the first leg we can only count on 1 and half of them ( safee and safiq before red card). and for the second leg we have only 2 (Khairul fahmi and Safee). i and dont have to stress how monumental the 2 had been for the second leg. Almost double-handedly winning the game on their own is no overstatement.
This is the 3rd time un-lucky i guess. Both Sea Games and AFF Cup started with a pickle. But we manage to scrape through them somehow. At the Sea Games, we needed 2 goals in the last 10 minute against Thailand to get through at their expense and 2 goal we get. The last extra time goal was scored by the notorious Fakri Saarani no less.. But this time we have lost our element of suprise. The amount of time wasting by Singapore showed how alert and threatened they are of us. which is not the case before with all their imports. Other teams will also start to be careful with us also. AFF 2012 starting to get harder to defend now.
to be better, we need some of the supporting cast to raise their level to join the elite ranks above. There are a vacuum for a 'complete' winger. A people who can make the full backs turn upside down. As useful as Amirulhadi and Kunalan has been, they are not that. Kuna especially need to be more assertive with his crosses and shooting.
still i do think Amar Rohidan, Amirul hadi, Kuna, fadli shas played well last night.
People were very fast to demand ad-hod callups after the chelsea game. What people dont understand is Rajagopal philosophy of play need a lot of work to sync into. Terengganu's midfield lynchpin Ismail Faruqi and league top scorer Hadi Yahya are among the best players in the league this season, yet they still dont gel properly with the team. The standard is somewhat different when you don the national jersey under Raja. So i hope people will give more faith in that Raja has his on reason when selecting players and not because of pilih bulu or what.
i am not too down after the game. the match was kinda lost in the first leg. And the few minutes when we are on the lead already worth the ticket price alone. And also thanks to the ultras that help to lift my spirits up.
there a lot of time that i am happy to be proved wrong. Confidently predicted that a weekday Malaysia match will be only half full at best. Yeah. we all know how that turns out.
i also happy and shocked to see the spirits of the fans. Even after we lost. takde lagi kutuk2 player sendiri. along the players, the fans has also grown.
My moment of the night was when a 12 year old boy beside me cried....merah mata dia... tgk team kesayangan dia kalah....how touched i am by that... may god bless malaysian football future..
This post has been edited by aressandro10: Jul 29 2011, 12:03 PM