Preview - PFA Odin V Terengganu
A must-win game for both sides who can still make the play-offs
The second match of Circuit 8 matchday 1 is the fixture that could matter most to how the play-off picture finally settles. PFA Odin Sarawak sit seventh, three points off the play-off places, while Terengganu occupy fifth, five points clear of the relegation-free but nonetheless meaningful scrap for the top six. Neither side's Circuit 3 meeting offered much of a guide to how this one will go: a tight, low-scoring 2-2 draw, Alif Mat Amin's opener for Terengganu cancelled out by an Asyraff Zakaris equaliser for the hosts.
Terengganu's season has been defined by exactly the kind of attacking approach that produced that opening goal. Alif Mat Amin has been the division's most reliable source of goals outside the top three clubs, and Terengganu's willingness to commit players forward, sometimes at real defensive cost, has made them one of the more watchable sides in the division on their day even as a goals-against column of 59 in twelve matches tells its own story about the trade-off involved.
PFA Odin Sarawak's season, by contrast, has been shaped by the gulf between themselves and the division's strongest sides, heaviest of all in a 1-15 defeat to JDT, but punctuated by genuinely competitive performances against opposition closer to their own level. That earlier draw with Terengganu sits alongside a narrow defeat to USM as evidence that, against the right opponent, PFA Odin Sarawak remain capable of making a match of it.
With little realistic prospect of PFA Odin Sarawak closing the gap to the play-off places in the two circuits remaining, this fixture matters more for Terengganu, who cannot afford to take a five-point cushion over seventh place for granted with ATM and KL City both occupying the positions directly above the safety line they are trying to protect. A repeat of June's stalemate would do Terengganu no real harm; anything worse would turn what should be a comfortable run-in into a nervous one.
The match kicks off at 13.30 on Saturday. You can watch all the action from every game on the MPFLTV channel on YouTube.
