KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 – Malaysian football kingpins Johor Darul Takzim (JDT) are the untouchables in the M-League – having won 17 trophies including the AFC Cup in 2015 at the Asian level.
This, according to club owner Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, who is also the Crown Prince of Johor, is because his team plays games of high intensity, discipline and focus. This is also due to hunger for success.
Not surprisingly, half of the national team is made up of players from JDT but these players failed to display the same high intensity and discipline apart from not being focused on the game in the recent Group G qualifiers of the World Cup 2022/Asia Cup 2023 in Dubai.
JDT will be Malaysia’s hope in the AFC Champions League when the Southern Tigers compete against the giants from Japan Nagoya Grampus, Ratchaburi FC (Thailand) and Korea’s Pohang FC in Group G at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok.
Interestingly, JDT’s new signing, naturalised Brazilian Guilherme de Paula, who was heavily criticised for his below par performance in Dubai in his first international assignment with Harimau Malaya colors, has been given the nod my coach Benjamin Mora.
The long-serving Mexican, has instead dropped Gonzalo Cabrera for the Bangkok meet.
The injured Shahrul Saad whose absence in Dubai was severely felt, is also out of the JDT team for the Champions League. Shahrul who moved from Perak, together with De Paula, is nursing a knee injury.
Mora, has instead, included defender Shane Lowry who comes in as the Asian quota. Also in the team to Bangkok is another new signing Nathaniel Shio Hong Wan.
The national players from JDT disembarked in Bangkok on the way back when the Harimau Malaya returned home on Thursday via a chartered flight.
Mora has also brought Bergson da Silva, Leandro Velazquez and Mauricio Nascimento – all of whom are the mainstay of the Southern Tigers, who are on track for their eighth successive Malaysian Super League title.
However, it is left to be seen if the Southern Tigers can do the same against in the Champions League.
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