Al-Caliph was full of confidence going into the match with the return of coach, Abg Ali. Although the turn out was relatively strong with the addition of 3 ad-hoc players, Al-Caliph couldn't find the back of the net. Opponent was Voda, which is currently 7th in the league out of 10 teams. In the last meeting, Al-Caliph won 3-1, however we knew Voda could play and they are relatively a young team.
The pitch was relatively big and weather was good. Al-Caliph started the game with a makeshift defence of Zhafran and Shah Junior in the centre and Razif and Tyrus as the left and right backs respectively. Partnering Feroz the monster in centre mid was Taufik, an ad-hoc player from ICA and our old rival, Marceles Junior. Khai who was still recovering from his ankle injury started on the left flank and Nadeem on the right. Up front was Yan and supporting him was Shai. Al-Caliph started well, spraying passes and getting use to the astro turf. We were playing with confidence knocking the balls around. All Voda could do was to hit us on the break with their quick counters. However, the defence stood firm and repelled whatever was thrown at them.
Al-Caliph still could not manage to break Voda's defence and on came Fulin the left legged. With Fulin and Feroz commanding the midfield, Al-Caliph's fluidity was more prominent. We had more possession but ironically we did not manage to test Voda's keeper and shots on their target definitely did not reflect the possession we had.
In the 2nd half, Al-Caliph continued pressing and Abg Ali tweaked the formation a bit, pushing Shah Junior up front with Feroz in the defensive midfield position alone. Zhaf came off and Aizad partnered Taufik in the centre back positions. With Shah Junior up front with Shahril and also Shai, Al-Caliph created more chances. Shahril had the most opportunities but luck wasn't on his side as the his chances all came on his weaker side. Shah Junior also had a chance through on goal but the ball did not drop kindly for him. The match ended with no goals and its 2 points dropped for Al-Caliph.
Our sponsor, Mr Dino was not too impress with our performance. He said even with fluidity in our passing, our shots on goal was too little. He wanted us to shoot and shoot and test the opponent's keeper. Ayat's goal in the last game was a simple example. However, Al-caliph can take away some positivity from the match. We had not lost our composure on the ball and our passing game is improving by leaps and bounds. We just have to work harder on our finishing.
By Zhafran