September 20, 2023
Although the Central Coast Mariners won the 2023 A-League by beating Melbourne City 6-1 in the Grand Final in a game covered by these diaries,
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2023/06/melbourne-city-1-6-central-coast.html
entry to the AFC Champions League is determined by who finished top of the regular league table. Consequently, Melbourne City will play in the AFC Champions League whilst second placed Mariners enter the secondary AFC Cup. This will be the Mariners first appearance in AFC competitions since 2015.
The Mariners were drawn into Group G, where their opponents will be Terengganu from Malaysia, Bali United from Indonesia and Stallion Laguna from The Philippines. Normally an A-League side would be favourites to win such a group, but in the AFC’s country rankings for the AFC Cup draw, both Malaysia and The Philippines were ranked higher, although these were skewed by the non-participation of Australian sides in the past two competitions due to the Covid restrictions in and out of the country.
The 8 Groups in the AFC Cup are regional, with winners of the three West Asia Zone and ASEAN zone all progressing to the zonal semi-finals. The best runner-up from the three groups for each zone also progress to the zonal semi-finals. Group G is part of the ASEAN zone.
Terengganu were runners-up in the 2022 Malaysian Super League, finishing 12 points behind champions Johor Darul Ta’zim, who have won the last 9 titles. Ivorian striker Kipre Tchetche was their top scorer with 13 goals but has since joined Kuala Lumper City.
The football club are located in Kuala Nerus in the Terengganu province of Malaysia, which has a population of around 200,000. It is located on the eastern coast of the peninsula around 440km north east of the capital Kuala Lumpur, a journey with takes nearly 5 hours by road. Home is the 50,000 capacity Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium, their nickname is the Turtles and the home colours are normally black and white stripes with white shorts although they were to play in all-white tonight but the numbers were very hard to distinguish from the TV pictures.
The 2023 Malaysian Super League season is close to its conclusion, with Terengganu languishing in a disappointing 6th position, 14 points behind second place Selangor, and 26 points behind champions elect Johor Darul Ta’zim. They had though won their last three matches, all away from home, and their average home attendance this season was 6,962. Today’s meagre crowd looked a little lost in the vast stadium.
Sides in the Malaysian Super League can register 9 overseas players but only 5 can be on the pitch at the same time, of which three must be foreign, one Asian and one ASEAN. Terengganu’s Asian player is Swedish born midfielder Omid Nazari who has 5 caps for Iran but is now eligible to play for The Philippines, whilst their ASEAN player is Thai striker Adisak Kraisorn ( 56 caps )
Terengganu’s foreigners consists of ex-Hadjuk Split & FCSB Croatian striker Ivan Mamut, Montenegrin defender Argzim Redzovic, Bahrani midfielder Habib Haroon, ex Sogdiana Uzbek centre-back Sandor Kulmatov, ex Bunyodkor Uzbek attacking midfielder Nurillo Tukhtasinov ( 1 cap ) and Haitian winger Sony Norde ( 27 caps ). At €800K Tukhtasinov was rated by Transfermrkt at some distance as Terengganu’s most value player.
No Terengganu players were selected for the most recent Malaysian national squad, although keeper Rahadiazli Rahalim ( 1 cap ) and defender Azam Azmi ( 7 caps ) had been selected in the past 12 months. Terrengganu’s coach is 57 year old Croat Tomislav Steinbruckner, a former player and manager with Osijek.
Central Coast Mariners have been a victim of their own success, as several of their better players have been noticed and moved on for more lucrative deals. 16 goal striker Jason Cummings ( 2 caps for Scotland, 3 caps for Australia ) has signed for Mohun Bagan in the Indian Premier League, centre-back Nectarios Triantis joined Sunderland for a reported fee of £300,000, New Zealand defensive midfielder James McGarry ( 1 cap ) moved to Aberdeen, Middlesborough signed midfielder Samuel Silvera ( 1 cap ) and Beni Nkoloko joined Saudi side Al-Orobah, Oddly, ex-Torpedo Zhodino Brazilian journeyman Moresche signed for Iraqi side Naft Al-Basra.
Also leaving the Mariners was head coach Nick Montgomery, who has become manager of Scottish side Hibernian. Abbas Saad is currently the interim coach.
To fill some of the gaps, under 23 international striker Alou Kuol has returned from VFB Stuttgart, Colombian winger Angel Torres has joined from Maltese side FC Balzan, and Brazilian right-back Mikael Doku has been signed as a free agent. Perhaps the best news for Mariners fans was that Brazilian forward Marco Tulio was still with club.
The Mariners are currently in pre-season, with the new A-League season due to commence on October 21st. They have played in the Australia Cup but lost to Sydney FC on penalties after a 3-3 draw after extra time.
Bet365.com, who were live streaming the match, made the Mariners 4/6 favourites, with Terengganu at 16/5 and the draw at 14/5. The referee for the game was from Oman, so good to see the AFC being committed to reducing the global footprint of their tournaments and flying in officials long distances rather than appointing from other nearby ASEAN nations………
The temperature at the 20.00 local time kick-off ( 13.00 UK ) was around 26 degrees, with the weather dry after earlier showers.
The Mariners got off to a flying start, and with barely two minutes on the clock Tulio’s overhead kick from Doka’s right-wing cross struck the base of the post and went wide. A minute later Tulio ran onto a long ball over the square home back line and went down when challenged, but the referee allowed play to continue.
The Mariners had a half-hearted appeal for a penalty after 6 minutes. Tulio ran onto a defence splitting through ball but Terengganu keeper Husin was able to push the ball away from him, but when Kuol went for the loose ball he crashed to the floor when challenged, and the referee waved play on, and it looked to be a good tackle.
The Mariners continued to dominate and from a free-kick in a dangerous position with 10 minutes on the clock, Balard’s attempt on goal took a deflection off the defensive wall and went narrowly wide. From the corner, Kaltak rose the highest, but his header went a few feet wide.
Mariners’ Wilson was then hurt after colliding with Husin as the home keeper confidently caught a cross from the right wing, and after 15 minutes Terengganu had a rare foray into the visitors’ half, but Mamut’s turn and left-footed attempt from 20 yards went more than 20 yards over the bar.
At this point. the Mariners though looked to be class above their Malaysian opposition and it appeared only to be a question of how many they would win by. Another exquisite through ball put Torres on a one-on-one with the keeper, but the Brazilian could only shoot against the legs of the keeper, and when the ball was recycled and played back into the danger zone by Tulio, Kuol under pressure put the ball over the ball from 6 yards.
A goal for the Mariners seemed to be imminent but after another astute past through the home defence, Torres blazed over the bar from 10 yards.
A rare counter attack from Terengganu ended with Norde shooting weekly from 20 yards at keeper Vukovic. The home side were slowly getting a foothold into the game, and after Mamut set-up Haroon, the Bahraini shot across the face of the goal, but a couple of feet wide.
The Mariners were still on top though and after 33 minutes Kuol headed narrowly wide from inside the 6-yard box. Torres then fired high and wide before Terengganu unexpectedly took the lead on the stroke of half-time thanks to an own-goal. A left-wing cross from Tukhtasinov was heading in the direction of Mamut, but young centre-back Paull dived in into to prevent it reaching the Croatian, but only succeeded in steering into his own net from 6 yards.
At the interval Terengganu led 1-0 but they could easily have been three or four goals behind, but the Mariners had been made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal.
Terengganu appeared to have more confidence at the start of the second half, and a low cross from Azmi was steered wide by Mamut. Mariners were still creating half-chances though, and Wenzel-Halls turned and shot straight at the keeper with 62 minutes on the clock, but the chances were occurring less frequently.
With 15 minutes remaining Haroon lashed a 25-yard effort against the Mariners goal post and Nazari sent the rebound high into the stands. However, the Mariners had a good chance to equalise a minute later, but after a strong run into the home area by Theoharous, his pass found Tulio but the close range left footed shot was cleared off the line by Mamut.
That was to be the last decent chance for the Mariners, and the A-League Grand Finals winners slipped to a shock defeat in a game they should have comfortably won. However, they have 5 more games in the group to rectify the situation………..
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F10a9VLppA
Terengganu FC : Husin – Azmi, Mazlan, Ros Hasni, Fadzilah ( Zakaria ) – Hakim ( Kraisorn ), Tukhtasinov ( Krasniqi ), Nur Shakir ( Nazari ), Haroon, Norde –Mamut ( Zamri )
Central Coast Mariners : Vukovic – Wilson ( Theoharous ), Kaltak, Paull, Farrell ( Roux ) – Doka, Marco Tulio ( Reec ), Balard, Nisbet – Torres, Kuol ( Wenzel-Halls )
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