MSL Feb 2nd Selangor VS Perak: Final Match Result

I don’t want to waste my time reporting what is obvious. You all know the final match result, it’s all in our major newspapers and sites such as Yob4ever Dot Com and SelangorFC Dot Com. I had expected that we could have a goal feast last night and I was right. 6 wonderful goals were scored in total, what a joy it was to watch the game last night. :-)

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Steve Darby for coming up with a safe and intelligent tactical formation in last night’s match against Selangor. I was highly critical of Steve Darby in the past and I will continue to do so in the future but last night Steve Darby deserves a big pat on the back. He knew that his team is going up against a strong attacking team and he had his team adopt a defensive 3-5-2 formation just to be careful. Wise move, Steve! That 3-5-2 formation of his was defensive from the outside but lethal down under. It was the best free flowing 3-5-2 formation that I have ever seen in the new MSL 2007-2008 soccer season!



I could no longer criticize Steve for being stubborn and persistent like in the past. In the new MSL 2007-2008 soccer season, Steve Darby is more adventurous. He still favors his 3-4-1-2 formation but he probably told his players to use it when it is necessary, I can see that his players adopted this formation when attacking at times. As usual, it was Ahmad Shahrul Azhar who got the honor to go forward and assists in the attack. Too bad though, Shahrul should have scored at least one easy goal last night but he was too hesitant. He should have blasted the ball into the net when he got the first chance.

Overall, the whole Perak team played exceptionally well last night. The score line was flattering giving the impression that Selangor was totally outclassed. Not really, the match could have gone either way. Perak was quite lucky, things would have gone differently if Safee Sali had scored that easy sitter but he made a bloody mess of it much to the dismay of Selangor head coach Dollah Salleh. Perak has a lot of experienced players and it was experience and perseverance that won the game for Perak last night. Well done, Perak!

I was rather surprised to see that Hardi Jaafar was named Man of the Match last night. Sure, Hardi Jaafar has been performing exceptionally well for Perak this season but I believe Nanthakumar should get the Man of the Match award last night. He was strong and confident in defense, gave excellent support in midfield and even did a little Peter Crouch thing upfront giving Khalid Jamlus the opportunity to score Perak’s 4th goal. Nanthakumar should have been given the award. Too bad the voters were too blind to see who was really playing exceptionally well last night.

Thank you to both teams for giving us one hell of a soccer match last night. Probably better than EPL in terms of entertainment value. Today I can say that Perak truly deserves to be known as the second best team after the conclusion of the first round of MSL 2007-2008 soccer season. Now it is time to challenge the defending champion, Kedah. Perak could not afford to drop any more points in the second round but we have to pray that Kedah will drop theirs.

Steve Darby… You have something great right now. Don’t lose it!

Tags: perak fa, malaysian super league, football, soccer, malaysia