Chong Yee Fatt’s competitive debut as Perak FC’s new head coach ended in a goalless stalemate as his side were completely nullified by Petaling Jaya City in Sunday’s 2021 Liga Super Malaysia Matchweek 1 action. The visitors managed to park the bus at the Perak Stadium to prevent their opponents from scoring and emerged out from the encounter with a respectable point.
PJ City had surprised the M-League scene by deploying an all-local squad for this year’s Liga Super, with their lofty aims for a spot in the top five raising even more eyebrows. However, the Phoenixes showed plenty of bravery and grit against a more-fancied Perak side, who had three of their four foreigners – Careca, Leandro Dos Santos, and Shakir Hamzah – along with the recently-naturalized Guilherme de Paula in their lineup, and left the city of Ipoh with a solitary point and a clean sheet to their name.
Head coach Chong, who replaced Mehmet Durakovic in late February, was left frustrated by the Bos Gaurus‘ inability to break down a stubborn PJ City defense and even though Perak remain unbeaten in each of their Liga Super opening matches played at the Perak Stadium since 2004, this performance would suggest that Perak would have a long and arduous season ahead of them.
Both Careca and Singaporean defender Shakir threatened Kalamullah Al-Hafiz’s goal throughout the Bos Gaurus-dominated match, however the PJ City goalkeeper was untroubled by whatever Perak threw at him and even though Shakir managed to beat him in the 47th minute, Al-Hafiz was saved by the crossbar who denied a debut goal for the former Kedah Darul Aman man.
On the other end of the pitch, PJ City’s new signing Darren Lok was paired up with Kogileswaran Raj up front to tear apart the Perak defense, however neither of them pose any threat to Perak custodian Hafizul Hakim.
The only other notable highlight of an otherwise uneventful draw was the yellow card given to PJ City’s new head coach P. Maniam for kicking the ball into the field in the 84th minute.