Malaysia Cup 2009: Teams adopting dirty tactics

INSTEAD of bringing out the best in competing teams, the Malaysia Cup fever may have brought out the worst in some of them.

Terengganu team manager Shaikh Ahmad Tajuddin Shaikh Yusoff said Sarawak were one of the teams who chose to abandon the principle of the 'beautiful game' by adopting illegal-tackling tactics.

According to Negri Sembilan head coach Wan Jamak Wan Hassan, Johor were no better when the premier league outfit opted for physical intimidation, even as far as indulging in off-the-ball tackles.

He said several of his players were bruised and battered in the 2-1 away win and might not be fit enough for the home match against Sarawak today.


"Unlike regular league matches, the Malaysia Cup tournament tends to invoke stronger desire to succeed among the competing teams and some of them may have taken it a little too far.

"But it was only the first game of the competition and we hope in future matches, such malice will not escape the eyes of the match officials," he said.

Shaikh Ahmad said Terengganu were no strangers to tough-tackling football but he claimed Sarawak went over the top with their violent conduct, on and off the field.

"We were unfazed by the missiles thrown by their fans, our players were able to take the physical abuse on the field but it was a little too much when team officials invaded the pitch to intimidate our players.

"The match was stopped for about 10 minutes in the second half to diffuse the tense situation and we have to count our lucky stars that none of our players were seriously injured," said the Terengganu FA vice president.

Terengganu team captain Marzuki Yusoff said he did not remember Sarawak players being overly aggressive in previous matches.

"But then again, most of their players now are young and probably over-eager to impress.

"We went there to play football and we managed to do just that although our Under-21 player Sofi Hamid was red-carded together with a Sarawak player just after Khairul Izwan Khalid scored the winning goal for us," he said.

Meanwhile in Kota Baru, Kelantan coach B. Sathianathan said his players would have to be prepared for a backlash from defending champions Kedah who were held to a 1-1 draw by Armed Forces on Saturday.