KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — The success in winning the FA Cup for the fourth time was a special moment for Kedah skipper, Baddrol Bakhtiar in his football career with the Red Eagle Squad.
The former national player, who had won the FA Cup three times with Kedah in 2007, 2008 and 2017, conceded that he was ecstatic that he could carve a name for himself in the Kedah football history since joining the northern team in 2005.
Kedah emerged as FA Cup champions for the fifth time after beating Perak 1-0 in the final action at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, last night.
Substitute, Mohd Fadzrul Danel Mohd Nizam emerged as the hero of the Red Eagle squad when he scored the winning goal in the 105th minute, to simultaneously destroy Perak’s hope to hoist the FA Cup which it last won in 2004.
“Indeed, I want to win the FA Cup because I want to create history in my state, namely, winning the FA Cup four times with only one team.
“To me, the referee at this match, Takuto Okabe (from Japan) was so good at handling the match and to a certain extent our referees can learn from the Japanese,” said Baddrol at a media conference after the match, last night.
For the record, Kedah emerged as FA Cup champions for the first time in 1996.
The success last night saw Kedah equalling the record of Selangor which had the most wins with five championships, other than enabling the Red Eagle squad to perform at the qualification round of the Asia Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Champions League next season.
Baddrol euphoria contrasted with Perak captain, Shahrul Mohd Saad who wanted to forget the sad episode following the defeat and vowed to focus on the Malaysian League competition starting next week.
“Although, we lost, I am very happy with my team mates who fought until the last blast of the whistle, except that fortune is not on our side.
“We will not give up and we will continue to strive for the Malaysia Cup (next week),” said the national football squad defender.
Asked on the performance of Takuto Okabe who refereed the FA Cup this time, Shahrul said personally he preferred a local referee who could gain experience to referee a match with tens of thousands of supporters from both sides. — Bernama
