Poor pitch forced Selangor to show their other side, explains Feichtenbeiner

Selangor have been playing some attractive football under technical director and interim head coach Michael Feichtenbeiner, which saw them return to winning ways and record huge wins in the later stages of the Malaysia Super League last month.

Perhaps they had expected to utilise the same tactic of transition football in their round one Malaysia Cup match against Melaka United on Sunday.

Instead, their plans were scuppered by a heavy rain that fell just before the match.

With the Hang Jebat Stadium pitch waterlogged, both teams were left having to combat the pitch as much as one another, and the Red Giants struggled to truly dominate the game.

It was the Mousedeer who controlled the first 20 minutes or so and won corner kick after corner kick, which thankfully for the designated home team, they failed to capitalise on. Having absorbed the pressure, a brilliant counter-attacking move by Sandro da Silva led to the opening goal by Ifedayo Olusegun in the 21st minute. The Brazilian continued his brilliance in the 52nd minute, this time scoring himself with a brilliantly-struck volley.

But the breathing space that Selangor won with the second goal did not last long, their nervy defence giving way to allow Uche Agba to pull one back for Melaka just seven minutes later. 

Both teams attempted to find their next goal, but their forwards just could not be clinical in front of the goal, and no further goals were scored. The 33-time champions scraped through to the quarter-finals, to face Kedah.

Feichtenbeiner admitted that his gameplan was hampered by the condition of the pitch, in the post-match interviews.

"We need a good field to play our game, in that we build from behind. If they stay very deep, four in the back and four in midfield, it's hard to create something on this field. However, after some time the boys managed to improve and create a few chances.

"I'm totally happy with the win today...I told my players that they must be brave and also smart to play here, and most importantly, in the end we must be successful.

"We played some good football despite the condition of the pitch and should have led by more than one at halftime. They felt more confident after the first goal and kept creating more chances," he explained.

The German however stated that the tough evening allowed his charges to hone their other side. 

"Melaka were only dangerous from their many set-piece situations, but we were in control of the game in overall. They had nothing to lose [after trailing] because it was a knockout game and we had to defend in the last 20 minutes. It is not normally our style but we had to do it.

"I told my players that we definitely can play better than we did today, but in the end we won. Sometimes we have to show another face. The pitch today made playing not easy and we still created chances," noted the former youth coach.