KUCHING: The moment Bobby Gonzales was substituted in the second half of the Premier League match led to the Crocs heavy loss to PDRM at Selayang Municipal Council Stadium on Tuesday.
Sarawak started well in the first half by taking a 2-0 lead but were later totally outplayed by a five-goal blitz from PDRM.
Acting Sarawak coach Mohamad Denny Da’ail blamed the loss on two factors — a loss of direction and failure to stop the four PDRM imports.
“As soon as Bobby was out due to injury, the young players seemed to lose their direction in the game. “To make matters worse, we didn’t have any tall players to counter the imports,” said Denny, adding that Pedro’s absence left only Hartson to foil attacks from the PDRM Fab Four.
“Two of Police goals came from corner kicks, a goal off a cross followed by another from a penalty kick. Our players simply failed to stop the PDRM set-pieces,” the coach added.
PDRM’s imports were spearheaded by the renown Patrik Ronaldinho who scored a hat-trick and three other formidable players.
According to Denny, Sarawak played magnificently in the first half, but were apparently overwhelmed by PDRM after the breather.
Meanwhile, the last time Sarawak made an impact in the FA Cup was in 2001 when they lost 1-0 to Selangor in the final at Shah Alam Stadium. The Crocs were then coached by Jalil Rambli.
Since then, Sarawak’s achievement in the tournament have plummeted until today. For the record, Sarawak won the FA Cup in 1992 after beating Kuala Lumpur 2-1 at the State Stadium, here. The squad were under Alan Vest as head coach then.
Vest again led the Crocs to the FA Cup final in 1996, but they lost 0-1 to Kedah at Merdeka Stadium.
