Sarawak vs Sime Darby: To the top we go!

Sarawak defended well and disabled Sime Darby’s hitman Karlo Primorac by crushing the club side’s unbeaten streak at the state stadium last night.

The electrifying game showed every signs of being a thriller as both teams were already displaying end to end football at the start of the whistle.

With the wet and soggy pitch to handle, Sime Darby (SDFC) mustered a few moves which troubled Sarawak’s head coach Robert Alberts.

However, the moves made by SDFC were easily absorbed by the home team with Ronny Harun shadowing every inch of Primorac’s movement.

After the 10 minute break, Sarawak started to gain momentum and managed to win the battle at the midfield which eventually resulted in two fruitless free kicks for the home side.

Then the moment of truth came in the 19th minute when Bobby Gonzales made no mistake by neatly heading in the winner thanks to a brilliant pass from Zamri Morshidi.

The 26,000 odd crowd roared with approval as Bobby danced his way to Robert Alberts as players celebrated the moment with roars of ‘Sarawak!’.

The home team mustered more attacking play after that with another few fruitless free kicks being awarded. Muamer Salibasic almost made it 2-0 for Sarawak, but his brilliant dribbling skills only managed to give him the chance of defeating three SDFC defenders, before offloading an off target shot for a fruitless corner.

Minutes later, Sarawak looked certain to be 2-0 up yet again but the linesman was quick to rule the goal as offside for SDFC to gain a free kick.

SDFC retaliated against the attacking momentum provided by the Crocs, but tightly marked Primorac was ineffective, hence leaving SDFC to long shots, which proved easy for Sarawak number one, Sani Anuar.

In the dying minutes of the half, Salibasic almost got his first goal of the season when a Zamri fed him a good grounded pass, but his curling shot was inches from the target.

The second half saw the visiting team eager to level the score, but Sarawak had already tightened their defense with the Crocs playing it high.

Sarawak balanced play and started shifing into attacking gear once more through a long throw in from Ronny. However, Sharol Saperi’s thunderous shot was blocked for a fruitless corner.

This was followed by a beautiful long cross by Ramesh Lai to Salibasic, but Salibasic was again off target.

SDFC tried to regain some control of the game, but their long range shots were yet again easy for top form Sani.

Instead, Sarawak took the opportunity to test SDFC’s goalkeeper when Junior Eldstal made a cheeky shot on target, only to have the keeper fumble the ball for yet another corner.

This was followed by a 30-meters shot by Mazwandi Zekeria, but SDFC’s goalkeeper acrobatics, saved the day.

With the clock already signalling the end of the game, Sarawak brought in Azizan Baba, but the final whistle after that substitution was the most awaited as fans and players cheered Sarawak taking over the Malaysian Premier League with six games in hand.

The win also meant that Sarawak remained the only unbeaten team the league, having been invincible at the Sarawak State Stadium so far.