That sinking feeling

The euphoria of beating league leaders Felda United two weeks ago has truly been lost. Two successive defeats have put Sarawak’s season into perspective. Last night’s match against Harimau Muda showed Sarawak’s inexperience and lack of conditioning as a team made up of under 19s showed fitness and class to steamroll past Sarawak 4-1.

It started well for Sarawak in the opening fifteen minutes as they had two golden opportunities to get on the score sheet if not for wasteful finishing from Shahrol Saperi and Effendi Malek. Shahran Samad looked commanding at the back, winning headers and going strong into the challenges until he reacted slowly to a through ball through the middle which resulted into the opening goal of the match in the 20th minute. This prompted coach Zaki Sheikh Ahmad into an early substitution replacing Fareez Tujiko with Wong Sai Kong. Sai Kong’s introduction gave Sarawak a stronger presence in midfield but it didn’t amount to any clear chances. Instead, as the fourth official held up the sign for one minute of added time, Harimau Muda scored their second from a corner kick on the stroke of half time.

As the players walked back to their dressing rooms, some sections of the crowd showed their displeasure with Sarawak’s lackluster performance.

As the second half started, Sarawak were back on the defensive. Fifteen minutes in, Harimau Muda earned a free kick on the right side of the goal. As the Sarawak defense was expecting a lofted cross, the ball was drilled at goal instead. Suffian Abdul Rahman saw it late at could only deflect it into goal. 3-0. As the crowd left while booing, things didn’t get better. 76th minute, a long punted ball out of defense was left to Suffian Abdul Rahman who was slow to react and was beaten to the ball for the fourth goal of the night.

Sarawak’s performance was so bad that even the referee sympathized with them as he gave Sarawak a penalty kick with three minutes left on the clock. It was out of nothing and Harimau Muda players could hardly believe the decision. A floated ball in from Shahrol Saperi was chested down by Zamri Morshidi in the penalty box. The ball got away from him and was cleared but the referee saw an opportunity to give Sarawak a penalty to help please the home crowd from further boos and taunts. After Za’afari clinically put the penalty away, he chose to celebrate his goal in contrast to Zamri Morshidi who rushed to retrieve the ball for a quick restart. The goal was nothing more than a consolation and a miserable night for Sarawak.

Sarawak’s keeper woes

Coach Zaki Sheikh Ahmad will really need to evaluate Suffian Abdul Rahman’s ability to remain Sarawak’s starting goalkeeper. Hesitant and indecisive, Suffian rarely comes to collect manageable crosses instead he relies on his defenders to that for him. He could be faulted for all the goals leaked in last night in addition to many blunders in previous matches. He is unreliable but he did well to stop a one-on-one chance late in the game against Harimau Muda. He depends too much on his defenders to help him out and more often that not, he will be found wanting. Last night’s performance must have seriously dented his already deflated confidence. It will be interesting to see if he starts again this Friday against the Malaysian Armed Forces and if he does, will he be able to prove himself more useful than placing a sack of potatoes in front of goal.