MALACA: Immediately after the referee blew the final whistle, the Sabahan coach Johnny Dominicus felt that as if he was dreaming!
He just could not believe what had just happened in the last 90 minutes.
His boys were virtually at the mercy of their opponents who were seemed to enjoy themselves making a fool of the young Crocs.
Kedah players were simply in their elements - six goals were produced from a perfect execution of 6 set pieces.
Johnny told The Kuching Sports News that everyone in the team was actually caught with their pants down in the match.
"We didn't expect to play on a pitch which is not suitable for our ball-on-the-ground strategy.
"The boys were given drilling on building a match momentum by playing the ball on the ground.
"We were overwhelmed with disappointment when we saw the pitch because our game plan didn't take into account of the pitch condition."
However, the experienced coach didn't blame anybody but himself for the defeat.
He admitted that it was his mistake for not making the boys to be familiar with the long ball strategy and pond-infested pitch.
Johnny pointed it out that if Kedah could overcome the poor condition of the pitch, his boys could also do the same.
"The boys have to learn to vary their game approach according to the to the situational factors such as pitch condition.
On the match against his home state, Johnny was happy that his boys could play according to the game plan.
"The pitch condition was okay ... the boys were happy that they could play their normal game," he said.
He said the young Crocs could have netted more goals if the lady luck didn't desert the boys.
Sarawak Sukma 2016 beat Sabah 4-1 in the second match of U-19 Youth tournament in Malaca.
The coach added the boys were now eager to win all the remaining matches against the host and KL.
"Kedah is on the top now but the boys are not bothered with this because they can get through the group stage if they won the remaining matches," concluded the coach.
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