Goalkeeper Rozaimee saves the night
Sabah survived a late onslaught from their hosts PJ City FC to force a 1-1 draw in the Super League tie on Saturday.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah survived a late onslaught from their hosts PJ City FC to force a 1-1 draw in the Super League tie on Saturday.
Played at the MBPJ Stadium, the Tambadaus could count themselves lucky to escape with a point despite creating the better chances and enough to claim all three points.
Alto Linus and Roduljub Paunovic saw their good efforts saved in the first half before PJ City responded by taking the lead through Elizeu Araujo de Melo Batista in the 53rd minute.
An unmarked Batista rose the highest to head home a perfectly weighted free kick into the box. The Tambadaus protested the goal due to a foul on one of their teammates but the referee did not entertain.
Sabah were unpertubed and continued to fight in search of the equaliser - including one which was cleared off the line - but they had to wait until the 88th minute to find the back of the net.
Captain Rawilson Batuil long ball into the box was headed by fellow defender Park Tae Su onto Paunovic path and the Serbian forward made no mistake by sending in an unstoppable volley to make it 1-1.
The goal seemed to awaken PJ City with former international Safee Sali leading the late onslaught.
The striker won a penalty in injury time but goalkeeper Rozaimee Rohim, who was preferred to the underfire Wan Muhammad Azraei Wan Teh, kept his nerve to make a one-handed save from PJ City’s Brazilian player Washington Brandao Dos Santos.
Sabah were again left off the hook deep into added time when Safee failed to make a clean contact, with the ball bounced off his shin and went wide with the goal wide open.
“First of all I’m happy for my players who gave it their all and stayed focussed throughout the 90 minutes despite several disappointing decisions against us.
“We were determined from the start wanting to bounce back from the two defeats we suffered since the restart.
“Although we fell behind, I was sure we could have won the game especially with the many chances that we created,” said head coach Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto after the match.
Kurniawan also claimed that Batista’s goal should not have stood as one of Sabah players was elbowed in the lead up to the goal but the Indonesian was reluctant to blame the referee.
“What impressed me was our players kept on fighting after falling behind. So, when we got the equaliser I was very happy.
“This is the quality that I want in my squad and of course it would be an important point to prepare for the next game.
“There are rooms for improvement...we need to be sharper when taking scoring chances because it is not easy to create them,” he said.
Sabah remained second from bottom in the 12-team table on six points and will now take on Kedah away on September 19.
“We will train harder in preparation for the game. They are a strong side but nothing is impossible in football...we will plan for our tactics to tackle Kedah,” assured Kurniawan.