SYABAS to Sabah FC for the 3-1 victory over Hougang United FC at the Likas Stadium on Thursday night.
Although the dry weather that I had hoped for did not happen, that did not deter Sabah FC from notching a very comfortable win on a rain soaked pitch.
Sabah FC were clearly the better team and the visitors were forced to play second fiddle.
The supporters who came to the stadium despite the heavy downpour were not disappointed with the attacking display of Sabah FC.
It did not take them long to see Sabah FC taking the lead as early as in the fifth minute off a brilliant header from Gabriel Peres.
We continued to dominate in the first half and in the 38th minute, Darren Lok latched on to a loose ball in front of goal to make it 2-0.
Instead of expecting more goals from Sabah FC at the restart, we suffered a low when Takayama Kazuma’s close range header was judged to have crossed the line in the 63rd minute although goalkeeper Damien Lim seemed to have blocked the ball off the line.
However, despite the protest from Damien, the referee decided to award the goal.
Credit to the boys as their response was swift with Darren scoring his second on the night off a nice timely run into the box to head in Sabah FC’s third goal less than a minute later.
The victory was an excellent start for our debut in the AFC Cup competition and I hope the team can improve further.
What was a bit disappointing for me despite the win was the many missed chances that we had throughout the match.
As in most of our matches played this season, we were just not clinical enough, but one positive thing was that we were able to score three goals.
But I believe it could have been better and the more goals we scored could be vital come the end of the group stage.
I was also glad that our defence was not fully stretched by the opposition.
The match also drew my attention that the VAR system was not used and I hope it could be implemented in future matches.
It will be of great use to assist the match officials when a call is challenged such as in the case of Hougang United goal.
It could determine if the ball had actually crossed the line and also help in the decision to penalise handball, intentional fouls etc especially in the box before awarding a penalty.
