Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Johor Darul Takzim Blame Players For Cup Final Loss
PETALING JAYA: Kelantan coach Bojan Hodak got his game plan spot on as his side dominated Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) for a 1-0 win to clinch their second successive FA Cup trophy at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Saturday.
The 42-year-old Hodak made sure he started the match with his best eleven while his JDT counterpart Fandi Ahmad surprisingly started with several players whose fitness was doubtful.
The Red Warriors midfield duo of skipper Mohd Badhri Radzi and Mohd Shakir Shaari easily outclassed JDT’s midfield pairing of Brazilian Andrezinho and national skipper Mohd Safiq Rahim, who had yet to fully recovered from an injury.
Badhri later played an instrumental role in Mohd Norfarhan Mohd’s goal in the 15th minute which handed them the victory.
JDT had to make two early substitutions – Leonel Nunez for the injured Safee Sali and K. Thanaraj for the struggling Andrezinho – in the first 35th minutes and it left JDT on the back pedal.
JDT later substituted the ineffective Safiq with Ahmed Ezrie Shafizie Sazali in the second half but the move was too late as they failed to find the breakthrough in the match.
Hodak said his tactical move to close down the channels when defending and adopting fast counter attacks worked like a charm.
“I can’t remember them (JDT) having any serious chances on goal for 90 minutes. We did well to contain them,” said Hodak in the post match press conference.
“We knew that if we attacked, we would have had chances to score. We should have scored more than one goal in the first half itself.
“The only problem we had besides Zairul’s (Fitree) injury in the first half, was having to substitute Daudsu (Jamaluddin). He was afraid to challenge for the ball after being yellow carded,”
JDT’s assistant coach Ismail Ibrahim said that their players let the team down by not disclosing the actual fitness level.
“When we asked the players before the game, they all said they were fit to play but they couldn’t cope during the match,” said Ismail.
“We were unfortunate as the players were not fully fit and hence our midfield was not functioning because of these factors. But I want to congratulate Kelantan because they played well.”
# posted by Me @ 6:43 AM 
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