Gimme, Gimme Gimme

7 Jul 2011

Right...

...to the Wire!

As a Ganuan mad redo1 was hoping to see Terengganu winning their maiden Super League title this season. However, prior to the kick-off of the last round of matches in the 2011 Super League season, he realised that The Turtles only had a small percentage of chances of doing that.

Three points behind leaders Kelantan and two behind Selangor the only way the Super League title coming to Kuala Terengganu was by hoping Saba
h to win against The Stags and Selangor were unable to get a win in Ipoh against Perak. Terengganu also needed to do their part of the bargain by winning big against Felda United at Kelana Jaya.

How mad redo1 wished he could be there to capture the moment but it was the Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium for him to cover the T-Team versus Kuala Lumpur match.


With the Terengganu club side already assured of their place in the Super League, the match was more significant for the City Boys who were third from bottom and needed to get at least a draw in Kuala Terengganu.

Thus it was no surprise when they raced to a two goal lead in the first half through Mohamad Badrul Hisyam Azmi. However Indra Putra Mahyuddin reduced the deficit towards the end of the period through a header from a corner.

In the second half Kuala Lumpur restored their two goal lead when Badrul completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot, even though T-Team goalkeeper, Ismail Abdul Rahman managed to save the initial kick the striker maintained his cool and slotted the ball past the goalkeeper, whose error gifted Kuala Lumpur their second goal in the first half.


Substitute Shamsul Kamal made the scoreline 3-2 towards the end of the match and despite some late pressure T-Team could not find their way past Kuala Lumpur defence again, condemning them to the thirteenth defeat of the season.

Meanwhile in Kelana Jaya, Terengganu raced to a 4-1 half-time lead with goals coming from Reeshafiq Alwi, Abdul Manaf Mamat and a brace by Abdul Hadi Yahya. However news coming in from Kota Kinabalu were not that rosy as The Stags had taken the lead against Sabah.

It turned out that tonight was not just about the race to become the 2011 league champions but also the race to win the golden boot. Malaysian internationals Hadi of Terengganu and Kelantan's Norshahrul Idlan Talaha were neck to neck to become 2011 topscorer, an award won by Terengganu's Ashaari Shamsuddin in 2010.

Then in the second half, Hadi found something extra and found the Felda United's net twice to make it twenty goals to his name and ensuring the golden boot would make its way to Terengganu again.

At the end of the night, The Turtles could not overhaul The Stags which were crowned as Super League Champions for the first time while Terengganu finished in their highest ever position since the start of the Super League, as runners-up which was an improvement from last season's third place. Selangor finished third after being held to a goal-less draw by Perak.

The immediate attention for Malaysian football fans would be the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers against Singapore on the 21 and 28 of July. Then it will be a break for Ramadhan before the Malaysia Cup tournament begin a week after Aidil-Fitri in September.

To Terengganu, CONGRATULATIONS FOR A GOOD SEASON!


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