PETALING JAYA: Kuala Lumpur coach Bojan Hodak is a hard man to please but he can afford to smile after his side snapped Negri Sembilan’s winning streak of four matches.
A solitary goal from captain Paulo Josue just before the half-time break was enough for the reigning Malaysia Cup champions to earn a morale-boosting win in the Super League at KLFA Stadium in Cheras on Thursday.
KL will face Indonesia’s PSM Makassar in the Asean Zone final of the AFC Cup on Wednesday and Hodak welcomed the end result, insisting that it was very important for his team ahead of the next clash.
“This is a very important win for us. We don’t want them to say that they came here (Cheras) to get three points,” said Hodak.
“It’s not easy to beat Negri because they are third in the Super League and have beaten some top teams to get there.”
It was the City Boys’ first win against a top team at home after losing to Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) and Pahang this year.
“The defeat to JDT was quite funny this year. It looked as though we had 700 yellow cards and one red (cynically, referring to their 0-3 defeat to JDT in April),” said Hodak, who was not too pleased with the refereeing quality then.
“We also lost at the hands of Pahang but that was a surprise. Of course we sometimes lose at home but every time we are here, we dominate the match.
“It was an interesting match today (Thursday) because both teams were very physical and hardworking.
“It’s just that the pitch wasn’t very good because the ball kept bouncing and was difficult to control and the opponents started well.
“But everything improved when we got the first goal. We should have closed the game with two or three more chances in the second half but we didn’t succeed,” said Hodak.
Negri remained in third spot in the standings with 32 points while KL are sixth with 21 points.
Another match saw Pahang earning a 3-2 win over Penang at the City Stadium.
Pahang replied through Andres Steven Rodriguez (44th and 74th minutes) and David Rowley (80th).
Rafael Vitor (65th) and Lucas Silva (85th) netted for Penang.
