Football isn’t always a rewarding thing.
Of course, it has ups and downs but contrary to popular perception, coming incredibly close to winning a title, before having to settle for second spot, is not quite the exhilarating experience, as some conjure it to be. In fact, it can be pretty painful.
This weekend, a certain team by the name of Pahang, face the brutal possibility of going through that exact sentiments. It doesn’t get more cruel than this. To their credit, the Elephants have been absolutely brilliant this year, and they’ve certainly looked like the only team capable of withstanding and even providing a counter-attack to the revolution coming in from down south.
JDT’s revolution is groundbreaking – take nothing away from them. But there are certain traditional footballing elements, that exists within Pahang. The Southern Tigers may be a proper football club (which they certainly are), but Pahang are a proper footballing family. Their facilities may not be up to par, their funding may be less significant, but the team spirit is absolutely undubitable. Social media isn’t the best metric to evaluate things, but you can’t help but feel the Pahang lads are absolutely close to one another, by just coming across various posts on social media sites, including Instagram and Twitter.
https://instagram.com/p/6mMzOKgR-i/
This translates onto the pitch as well. Their comeback win over Sime Darby was painted as a ‘Conti-inspired’ win, though truth be told, it was far from the case. Conti executed the goals, but collectively as a team, they were united. They’ve only incurred three Super League defeats this year. The first one was a Community Shield defeat to JDT, in which the team was visibly lacking tempo. The other one was a narrow 1-0 defeat to ATM. The third one was a 4-2 defeat to LionsXII recently, which was largely due to their struggles on the artificial turf at Jalan Besar Stadium. But they were never really torn apart by any team.
And you wonder why as well. I mean, it’s a Malaysian team and don’t Malaysian teams have this perennial sense of desire and obsession for short-term success, which explains the intensity at which we sack head coaches or ‘rest’ them as we call it these days? But note that Pahang have stuck with Zainal Abidin Hassan through thick and thin, and they’ve consistently backed him. At no point, were there any rumours about the management being skeptical about his ability. Even if they were, they certainly concealed it well enough. A manager that is backed heavily by the board and management, will inevitably earn the trust of the players. Ask Sir Alex Ferguson.
Similarly, they’ve also retained their foreign players, without pandering to the incessant need of revamping their line-up every year. Several other sides are guilty of that, including JDT. But Pahang knew, that the trick was to get their foreigners assimilated into the squad. Dickson Nwakaeme comes from Nigeria, Matias Conti hails from Argentina, Zesh Rehman is from Pakistan, while Damion Stewart comes from Jamaica. But you never really get that feel do you?
Their integration into the squad has been impeccable and that’s played a huge part in them functioning as a collective unit. Patito Rodriguez is a terrific player, but he never looked completely assimilated into the JDT team. Alhaji Kamara looked like an absolute beast of a player when he first arrived, but as soon as he struggled, they showed him the exit door.
It’s not so much about the quality itself, it’s more about patience and forging a proper team spirit. Pahang, for what’s worth, seem to have got that bit sorted out. Yes, of course. That’s not the ultimate factor in football. Pahang aren’t exactly the perfect outfit either. It’s always a mixture of several facets. And should JDT hold on to win the title on Saturday, they will completely deserve it as well – the Southern Tigers have been stupendous.
But when modern football is starting to exert control and flex it’s muscles all over the world, the sight of impeccable and traditional novelty – no matter how small it may be – is one that warms the heart of every football fan out there. Just like when Juventus were hailed for their Champions League run last year, when Jose Mourinho broke down after his last game in charge of Inter Milan, when the Crawley Town fans sang proudly despite their team’s defeat at Old Trafford, when the Villa fans gave Stiliyan Petrov a heroic tribute on his return to Villa Park, after being diagnosed with leukimia. The sight of Pahang’s squad being united as one is a reminder of what the game is truly about.
On Saturday, you know for a fact that the Elephants will be out firing on all cylinders against Terengganu. You know that they’ll be gunning for a win. But you also know that the ball is in JDT’s court. Pahang’s fate depends on JDT’s game against Felda United.
But right now, it doesn’t matter. Title winners or not, Pahang FA are true champions.
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