KUCHING: Sarawak United Football Club (SUFC) had a night to forget as visiting Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) romp to a 4-0 victory at Stadium Negeri last night.
JDT opened the scoresheet early at the 13th minute through with Ahmad Hazwan Bakri turning in a quick throw-in near the penalty box by Lavere Lawrence Corbin-Ong.
Seven minutes later, JDT netted a second through Bergson Gustavo Silveira Da Silva who scored following a corner by Adam Nor Azlin on the 20th minute, giving them a comfortable lead before half time.
In the second half, Muhammad Syahmi Safari put JDT 3-0 up against SUFC, finding the net following a long pass from midfield at the 78th minute.
SUFC continued to labour but to no avail with an 87th minute penalty awarded to JDT putting the outcome beyond doubt.
Fernando Martin Forestieri converted the spot kick, with the scorelines at 4-0 at the final whistle.
Despite the unflattering scoreline, SUFC head coach S. Balachandran commended his players who had valiantly held JDT off throughout the game.
“We know we will get tremendous pressure from JDT from the beginning of the game, but the we managed to hold them off.
“Still, there were some mistakes that we did, and most of the JDT players scored by set pieces and a penalty at the dying minute,” said Balachandran during a press conference after the match.
He admitted it was not easy to go against a top team – in the country and region – but nonetheless proud that the SUFC players displayed a good performance.
The head coach also said that there are still a lot of work that needed to be done in terms of training, understanding each other and he is positive that there will be a progress.
“I can see the momentum of the players are improving, their play is getting faster and they are getting to understand each other as well.
“We do not have any foreign players at the moment but the team were motivated, and fans gave them the support they needed and put the atmosphere into the match today.
“Plus, we have a lot of injuries and every game is a tough game. It will take some time for us to move forward from this point but I believe the team will progress in the coming time,” he said.
