Malaysia 1 : Bahrain 1
Perhaps we gave them too much respect. This Bahrain side was not as aggresive as any middle east side that we know of. For most of the first 45 minutes, our backline sat very deep, allowing the opponents to have more rooms going forward.
The limitation of our fullbacks in Asrarudin Putra and K Rueben, were exposed everytime Malaysia play the ball into the path of Azamudin Akil and S Kunanlan. Both wingers were left isolated without proper support from the respective fullbacks.
We can't deny the hard work shown by K Gurusamy alongside skipper Safiq Rahim, They won the ball quite reasonably well. But in few seconds later, our team lost the ball easily too. This is the area where we need a new coach with new ideas, on how to use the ball with precision. To win the ball, to keep it, and in the same time to organize the players movement in order to retain possesion.
In so many occasions, we gave away the ball easily. You can afford to loose the ball at South East Asia level, but at another level such as this one, loosing the ball at a long period would cost you a severe damage mentaly and physically.
Due to this, Amri Yahyah and Nurshahrul Idlan were forced to make an individual effort to penetrate the visitors defence. Strikers and midfielders were stretched apart, distance between them were so far, leaving Aidil and co to play aimless long ball forward.
We registered our first meaningfull shot on goal in the 20th minutes, while we earned our first corner in the 30th minutes. That shows how negative we were for the first half. A home team with a need to win, we should have shown more urgency to bring the game to them.
The goal conceded was as a result of split second lack of concentration. Just a minute before the break, they were 2 or 3 Bahrain players were left unmarked at the edge of the box. The guy have so much space and sweet time to received the ball, make a yard for himself before unleashed an unstopable strike at the top corner. New coach for concentration development perhaps?
Man of the match for me was Nurshahrul Idlan talaha. The only player in our side with courage and hungry for goals. His equaliser reminds me of his Kelantan treble winning season. Nurshahrul with great confidence, he can beat anybody. Would love to see him to bounce back next season.
With this result, Malaysia let the best chance sliped away. A victory would have give us a morale booster and greater confidence for the next away game. I just hope we can keep the right momentum going, and i still hoping we could qualify for Australia 2015. Believe.
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