Selangor buried Persib Bandung of Indonesia 3-0 in their opening match in the Selangor Asia Challenge at the Shah Alam Stadium on Saturday which is part of the team’s preparations for the new M-League season.
Skipper Taylor Regan opened the scoring in the 10th minute before Sandro da Silva Mendonca got the second on 41 minutes. International Syahmi Safari added the third for the Red Giants just before the halftime break.
Coach B. Satianathan, however, was far from pleased with his team’s overall performance on the heavy pitch.
”We could have done better…could have scored more. The chances created were not finished off. It could because of the rain,” said Satianathan who is in his second season with the Red Giants.
“The pitch conditions were not good so we have to take that into consideration.”
Satianathan is also battling injury woes to his team. New signing Norhakim Hassan who operates on the leftwing, is out for the rest of the season with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. He was signed up from Perak.
Spaniard Rufino Segovia who has a contract with the Red Giants that runs through 2020 has yet to train with the team. The 2018 Super League top scorer missed a major part of last season due to Achilles tendon tear.
Persib Bandung coach Robert Albert, who is no stranger to Malaysian football, having coached Kedah and Sarawak at one time and later became the FA of Malaysia (FAM) technical director, however, had “no complaints” on his team’s defeat.
“We have yet to start training. It was a good effort from the players and there were positives in the match. This is a good sign for us,” said the Dutchman.
Meanwhile, in another match in the Selangor Asia Challenge, Thailand’s Bangkok United defeated Hanoi FC of Vietnam 3-0.
