Sabah FC need to swallow pride and move on
Published on: Sunday, June 30, 2024
By: James Wong
SABAH FC were humiliated in their FA Cup first leg away tie against Terengganu FC at the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium on Friday night.
We had the full first 11 players at the start but sadly the thought of us bringing home at least a point was well over after the first 45 minutes.
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The home side scored as early as in the ninth minute and from then on they went on a rampage.
They were twice denied by the crossbar before the three-goal blitz inside the last 10 minutes or so in the opening half.
I am still in awe of 0-4 scoreline at half time. It was a shocking result as no one had expected the thrashing and it could have been more if not for the crossbar!
It was a below-par performance from the team. The players showed no urgency in the game and awful defending was another factor.
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There were a lot of ball watching incidents when we were defending. Although we have five to six players inside the box at times, but the Terengganu FC players still could easily get past our defence .
We were just not alert enough and allowed the Terengganu players to run behind the defensive line at ease!
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We let in four very soft goals but credit must go to the Terengganu players who were evidently the more hungrier on the pitch with the backing of more than 15,000 supporters.
It was rather sad to see Sabah FC mauled by the home team. But this is football, as so often, the minute the team slackens in their performance, the opponent will take full advantage.
Although we are 0-4 down from the first leg, I believe we can still stop the rut! There is still hope when you have your homeground advantage in the next 90 minutes.
It is a huge deficit, and the only way to get through this is to score at least four goals or more in Likas.
Although it will be a super uphill task to overcome this deficit, the possibility is there as they say the ball is round.
The onus is now on the players. Come July 6, they should know that they have to play super hard and score goals.
Our expectations of winning at least a silverware is now bleak following the loss. However, all said and done, we can’t change what happened in Terengganu.
We need to swallow the bitter pill and move on. Datuk Ong Kim Swee and his team of coaches will have to go back to the drawing board to resolve the weaknesses.
We still have a long season to go and I hope things will change for the better after this.
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