Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto
KOTA KINABALU: Nothing seems to be going the Rhinos’ way at the moment as they continue to struggle to find their best form and more importantly the desired result in the Super League.
Sabah FC lost 0-3 to Penang FC at the Likas Stadium on Sunday, which extended their winless run to seven games.
And head coach Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto revealed the Rhinos had no one to blame but themselves for their tendency to lose focus at a crucial moment.
The Indonesian trainer said that they had prepared well for the game including trying to find ways to stop Penang FC from playing to their strength, including the aerial threat posed by Brazilian striker Casagrande, but to no avail.
“It was a very disappointing defeat, more so when we had come up with a plan but then again it did not go according to what we had expected.
“They (Penang FC) were very compact defensively and we knew that Penang’s strength is playing the ball long and make crosses.
“And then there was Casagrande. In training, we tried to assimilate on how to stop him and prevent him from roaming freely (in actual match).
“But we lost focus for a moment and Casagrande was free and able to score two goals,” Kurniawan explained after the game.
Casagrande, or Anselmo Arruda Da Silva in full, was completely unmarked inside the box when he headed home the opening goal.
The lanky striker again showed his aerial prowess when he beat Sabah captain Risto Mitrevski to a pin-point cross to put Penang FC two-nil up early in the second half.
Tajikistani centre forward Sheriddin Boboev made it 3-0 when he raced past three Sabah players to slot the ball into the bottom right corner.
“We tried to fight back and thus the decision to withdraw Azzizan (Nordin) so as to counter Penang who had two central midfielders in a 4-4-2 formation.
“It allowed us to push Amri (Yahya) further up so that we have two strikers up front…we needed to find the goals.
“However, Penang were disciplined in their game and that made it very difficult for us,” he added.
With the defeat, Sabah remain seventh in the 12-team league on 19 points.
The Rhinos will have three more games to try to improve or at least maintain their ranking or risk being sucked into the relegation battle.
Sabah FC will next face basement side UiTM FC away on August 28 followed by a home fixture against Selangor FC on September 5.
The Rhinos will conclude the league campaign away to Perak FC on September 12.