One hundred and forty seven days since the Malaysia Super League drew its curtain for the 2020 season, it was reopened in magnificent fashion on Friday by Johor Darul Ta’zim FC (JDT) as the reigning champions sent out a large and clear warning to the rest of the league - ‘we are still hungry and we are still the one to beat’!
JDT welcomed Kedah Darul Aman FC (KDA) to Sultan Ibrahim Stadium and swiftly sent them packing on the opening night of the 2021 Super League season with a 2-0 scoreline that didn’t really do justice to the dominance that The Southern Tigers enjoyed throughout the game.
Even with seven straight Super League titles already under their proverbial belts, JDT are showing no signs of letting up, stamping their class and authority all over a KDA side that finished second in the league last season and are supposedly the biggest threat to their title ambition in the new campaign.
These two teams have played in this fixture that also doubled up as the Charity Shield in four of the last five seasons, with JDT holding superiority with three wins as opposed to KDA’s solitary triumph in 2017.
Unlike last year’s match, where KDA had JDT on the ropes for large periods of the first half and perhaps could have offered a bigger fight to the latter had the 2020 season been able to be played out in its entirety, Friday's match suggested a more ominous sign that the titleholders may have taken more steps forward than their main rival.
A goal in each half summed up the authority JDT had on the game. Safawi Rasid scored a cleverly-taken goal seven minutes from the break ,before Ignacio ‘Natxo’ Insa produced a ridiculously accurate grounder from distance midway through the second half with Farizal Marlias being largely a spectator in the match.
It’s the start of a new season, but there was a very familiar feel to JDT as head coach Benjamin Mora opted to retain his faith in the same set of players that won the title last season. Only Fernando Rodriguez was roped in to fill the centre forward role but even then the Spaniard was already part of the JDT furniture since last season.
Of the new recruits, only Safiq Rahim was in the substitutes bench, with Danial Amier, Mohamadou Sumareh and Bergson da Silva not even in the matchday squad. If anything it only goes to show that JDT can only get stronger once those players are available and start pushing for a place in the starting XI.
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Safawi looked like he never went away and those few months of inaction at Portimonense did not have any unwanted impact on him. Insa was imperious at the heart of JDT’s midfield, so much so that club captain Hariss Harun’s service wasn't needed in this game.
It was a game in which neither team was at their best because it would have been impossible to be at that stage of their performance given the match came after only two weeks of pre-season because of the restrictions caused by the government’s Movement Control Order.
“I don’t think we were at 100%, it’s a good start but we can do better. It’s going to be a good season because the players are motivated and hungry, you can see all that from the way we fight to regain control of the ball,” said Mora after the match.
“There are no teams who are 100% from the first game and I’m sure it was the same for KDA. We are not at 100% but we will get there soon.”
KDA came into this match with big hopes and a renewed confidence ahead of a new season after what was a very successful transfer window for them where the team was beefed up in positions where they were lacking, all of which further adds to the disappointment for head coach Aidil Sharin.
Renan Alves was a big miss in defence for KDA, with Ariff Farhan also missing out on the game but otherwise Aidil had a full-strength squad to choose from. Anumanthan Kumar, Rodney Celvin Akwensivie and Fairuz Zakaria were all given their full debuts but still KDA looked distinctly second-best compared to their opponents.
Retrospectively, Aidil could also look into his tactics for the game where he elected to use Rabih Ataya in a central position, leaving Anumanthan and Baddrol Bakhtiar with just too much to do in their battle against the trio of Insa, Afiq Fazail and Leandro Velazquez.
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The much-vaunted KDA attack that comprised of Ataya, Tchetche Kipre and Kpah Sherman did not get much of a look in because their team spent most of the match off the ball and when they eventually got it, they did not receive much support from the rest of the team.
“In the end we have to accept that JDT were the better team. They are strong at home with a lot of good players and import players. We didn’t have Renan but that isn’t an excuse,” said Aidil after the match.
“We have to accept this defeat and move forward from here. We will improve in the next game and hopefully we can get some players back to help us.”
KDA will improve as the season progresses, that is not in doubt because there’s too much quality in the Red Eagles not to do so. Aidil will have a stronger team in the weeks and months to come, and could possibly offer up a far stiffer challenge to JDT when the return fixture comes around on May 21.
But JDT will also become stronger as well and on the evidence of this match, more than proved that they are once again the team to beat and the benchmark for the other teams. Unless JDT suffers a consistent unexpected drop-off for the rest of the season, title number eight looks more like a mere formality.
