Sabah FC collect 1 point and still on 2nd rank after tied Kuala Lumpur City with a score of 2-2 in the Liga Super Malaysia 2022 at Likas Stadium, Kota Kinabalu.
The first mistake happened as early as the fifth minute when Datuk Ong Kim Swee’s men who were still setting the pace of the game were surprised by an opponent’s goal from a header by KL City FC import player Giancarlo Gallifuoco.
Gallifuoco managed to take advantage of a free kick from outside the left side of the penalty box that was aimed precisely at him by the team captain, Paulo Josue, unexpectedly from the Sabah defense.
After trailing 1-0, it was only then that Sabah started to organize an attack on KL City and managed to create several chances and attempts, but managed to be broken by the opponent’s goalkeeper, Kevin Ray Mendoza.
Sabah’s dangerous attack started in the 12th minute when an imported player from Japan, Taiki Kagayama, had the opportunity to attempt a header, but was quite weak and easily blocked by Mendoza.
It was then followed by two corner kicks in the 23rd and 24th minutes before a free kick from outside the right side of the KL City penalty box in the 25th minute, but still failed to beat the opposing goalkeeper.
Although Bojan Hodak’s squad did not get many opportunities to counter-attack, Sabah players’ efforts in the next minute until the end of the first half of the game were also unsuccessful.
Entering the second half of the match, Sabah seemed to change the pace of the game with a more aggressive performance in an effort to find an equaliser.
Finally, in the 47th minute, Sabah’s effort to find an equalizer was successful through Dominic Tan’s dexterity stealing the opportunity to score a try after seeing the ball slip away from Mendoza’s barrier in front of the KL City goal.
With the score 1-1, the spirit of Sabah players to add more goals to ensure victory on their own court jumped again with more aggressive action.
However, Sabah were once again disappointed when KL City managed to add a second goal through Muhammad Akram Mahinan in the 60th minute making the position change with KL City leading by 2-1.
In the 66th minute, Saddil managed to make a poisonous attempt for Sabah through his swipe kick but was successfully parried by Mendoza before Kim Swe’s squad once again made an attempt through a corner kick, but it did not result in a goal.
After that, Sabah continued their efforts to equalize the position again, this time helped by the inclusion of sensational player Amri Yahyah who was brought in in the 67th minute.
Amri, who was quite aggressive in trying to find an equalizer for Sabah until he was shown a yellow card in the 80th minute, was seen to help a lot to improve the hosts’ chances.
In the end, Sabah once again managed to equalize with Saddil Ramdani’s free kick in front of the KL City goal after Mendoza failed to clear it in the 85th minute, making the score tied again, this time at 2-2. The result stands until the final whistle.
Credit Photo : MFL
