East Coast sides flex their muscle

The east coast monsoon swept the FA Cup on Tuesday with Johor’s Darul Takzim being the only non-east coast team in the semi-finals.

The FA Cup could see an east coast team winning it for the third straight time after Terengganu triumphed in 2011 and Kelantan’s win last season.

Kelantan overcame a bruising second leg against Sarawak in Kuching on Tuesday for a 4-1 aggregate win and will face arch rivals Terengganu, who thrashed Negri Sembilan 6-1 over two legs.

Pahang defeated Premier League leaders Sime Darby 2-0 on aggregate and will play Darul Takzim, who upset Selangor 4-2 on penalties after the tie ended 3-3 on aggregate in Shah Alam.

The first leg is on May 25 and the second three days later.

Kelantan’s win meant they are the only M-League team with a chance of winning the Super League, FA Cup and AFC Cup.

Coach Bojan Hodak attributed his team’s success to rotation of players.

“We have been playing every three days for sometime and my players are tired. It is not easy juggling three competitions at one go but we are managing,” said Hodak yesterday.

“Instead of complaining, I’d rather focus on preparing my team. I have decent players and can rotate them in matches. It is a strategy to keep them fresh.”

Kelantan’s second leg 2-0 win over Sarawak was marred by fans throwing objects at match officials.

The referee had to stop play for 12 minutes in the second half.

Sarawak fans were unhappy with the referee who had disallowed three goals for offside.
The FA of Malaysia (FAM) will wait for the match commissioner’s report before taking action against the Sarawak FA (FAS) for the crowd disturbance.

FAS was fined RM46,000 by FAM last year after their fans attacked enforcement officers during a Super League match in Kuching.

For Tuesday’s match, Hodak rested Nigerian Dickson Nwakaemi and gave international Ahmad Fakri Saarani his first start. The Serbian coach was happy with the midfielder’s performance.

“I rested Nwakaemi because he had a muscle problem. Ahmad gave a good account of himself and hopefully keeps progressing.

“We played aggressively and scored early goals. Sarawak were demoralised from then on,” said Hodak.

Kelantan face PKNS in a league match tomorrow, followed by an away AFC Cup game against Maldives’ Maziya Sports & Recreation, three days later.

“I will continue rotating my players as we cannot afford to drop points in the league. We have already qualified for the second stage of the AFC Cup.

“We always go for early goals and will do just that against PKNS,” Hodak added.

Kelantan, with 14 points from 12 matches, are seventh in the league and 10 points behind leaders LionsXII.

Source: NST