Johor Darul Ta'zim made no mistakes against Imigrasen in the Super League's second round on Friday, winning 7-0 at home. The hosts have now won all three of their matches this season, nine points from three games, while the visitors sit bottom with none from two.
And here's the thing — it was Bergson who set the tone early, opening the scoring in the seventeenth minute. Imigrasen showed a flicker of resistance with a yellow card for M. Nahuel at twenty-two, but the visitors were never really in it. Marcos Guilherme doubled the lead before half-time, and Bergson added his second just after the interval.
To be fair, Johor didn't let up. K. Medina made it four in the forty-second minute, and S. Zahedi struck in stoppage time before the break. The visitors changed shape at half-time, bringing on Z. Arifin and Ramon Machado, but the damage was done. A. Yusni picked up a second booking for Imigrasen in the fifty-eighth minute, and the home side kept pressing.
C. Akapo pulled one more away in the sixty-eighth minute, and Bergson sealed his hat-trick with a penalty in the seventy-seventh. The match ran on with several substitutions — D. Petrovic, R. Ghazali and S. Zahedi all came on for the hosts in the sixty-sixth minute alone. Imigrasen, meanwhile, had already been reduced to defending deep.
By then the result was never in doubt. Johor are top of the table and have the deeper squad to keep the momentum going. Imigrasen have lost both matches so far — against Sabah and now this — and need the points badly if they want to avoid a difficult start.