ON a Saturday, when many Malaysian fans usually follow EPL matches, it was the Pahang versus Kedah match that stole the show.
Amid Manchester City playing Aston Villa, Chelsea playing Burnley and Leicester equalling the biggest win in EPL history with a 9-0 destruction of Southampton, much of the animated discussion was on the Malaysia Cup semi-final second leg drama.
In years to come, they will talk about the titanic battle at the Darulmakmur Stadium in Kuantan. Played in front of 29,275 spectators, it offered everything: drama, tension and confusion.
Yes, there was confusion, Pahang’s Dickson Nwakaeme celebrated after scoring in the final minute of extra-time, thinking he had equalised at 5-5 for the Elephants and forcing a penalty shootout.
But joy turned to bewilderment for the towering 1.87m Nigerian. He was wrong about the rules, and so were a veritable number of fans who asked “what happened, who won?” Nwakaeme even threw a Kedah jersey (a Kedah player had exchanged with him) onto the ground in frustration.
Going by Europe’s Champions League rules, the away goals will count in extra time over a two-leg tie. But under Asian Football Confederation rules, the away goals will not count in extra time. The incident also led to the Malaysian Football League issuing a statement yesterday, saying the rule has been in place since 2010.
Ironically, Malaysia is in Asia, not Europe. Fifa, the world body, leave it to its affiliates to decide on the away goals format.
The confusion aside, no one could have come up with a better script to get Malaysian fans excited about the M-League again.
The Pahang-Kedah match deservingly stole the limelight from the Selangor-JDT match which was played at the same time. That, despite Selangor being the 33-time Malaysia Cup champions and JDT being the No 1 in the Super League.
Many of us have never seen anything like this before. Ten goals (5-5) in 120 minutes in the second leg and six goals (3-3) from the first leg in 90 minutes. An amazing 16 goals were scored over two legs.
In the last 10 editions of the Malaysia Cup, no other results matched Saturday’s 5-5 scoreline with the closest being eight goals shared in four group matches.
At Kuantan, the two sets of players found themselves on an emotional roller-coaster as they swung between the joy of reaching the Malaysia Cup final and the heartbreak of losing out after two mind-numbing games. We salute both the teams for their fighting display.
On Saturday, six foreign players scored nine of the 10 goals. On target for Kedah were Spanish striker Fernando Rodriguez (8th, 118th), Argentine striker Jonatan Bauman (55th) and Brazilian defender Renan Alves (93rd).
Pulling the trigger for Pahang were Nigerian hitman Nwakaeme (33rd, 120th), Namibian striker Lazarus Kaimbi (71st, 76th,) and French midfielder Herold Goulon (114th).
The only local player who found the back of the net was Kedah midfielder Baddrol Bakhtiar. What an important goal it turned out to be. His strike in the 85th minute was the equaliser (3-3) and forced the match into extra-time.
In recent years, Malaysian football has seen a dwindling number of fans. On the average, several small teams draw only a few hundred spectators while some of the bigger teams draw about 5,000 to 15,000 spectators in the M-League.
More spellbinding matches like the one served up by Kedah and Pahang will go a long way in making the M-League more popular,
The football industry is also about numbers. More goals mean more entertainment value and more fans will pack stadia, making it easier for teams to get more commercial sponsors.
The Pahang-Kedah blockbuster can also reignite the dimming flames of the 99-year-old Malaysia Cup competition.
In recent times, the competition has taken a backseat to the Super League and FA Cup because the two events provide a route to continental tournaments like the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup.
Yet there remains a particular persona and charm about the Malaysia Cup, and it was felt none more so than at Darulmakmur Stadium on Saturday.
For Kevin Ramalingam, the chief executive officer of the Malaysian Football League, the match only goes to prove that the romance is still very alive in the oldest cup competition in Southeast Asia.
“It’s testimony that there’s a never-say-die attitude (by the teams) especially when it comes to trying to get to the pinnacle of the Malaysia Cup,” he said.
For the M-League to thrive, more action-packed sequels of the Pahang-Kedah type are needed, as this will lead to more fans buying tickets.