Acid test for new-look Rhinos
Published on: Friday, January 20, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Newly-appointed Sabah Rhinos team manager Adlane Messelem said the players are very focused for their Premier League football season opener against Negeri Sembilan at the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Stadium in Paroi tonight (Friday) starting at 9pm."This is the season opener and we want to bring a good result for the people of Sabah, and I feel everybody is very focused for the match against Negeri Sembilan tomorrow," he said on Thursday upon his arrival in Seremban.The acid test for the new coaching set-up with Adlane as sporting director and head coach Steve Vilmiaire this season is how the players will approach their first game tonight after weeks of training under the Frenchmen.
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The team had a good encouraging pre-season with no losses in their two tough matches against Super League teams Sarawak and PKNS recently after they came away with a 1-0 away win against the former and a 2-2 draw with the latter at home.Both Adlane and Steve were very encouraged by the performances showed by the players in the two matches and confident the players will deliver their best tonight."The players are ready for the first game of the season and I feel the team is hungry for success. We will try to play every game as in a final, starting with this one."
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Adlane also said they will only finalise the starting line-up later today, and they are unlikely to start without their four foreign imports.Croatian Igor Cerina who had an impressive debut season last year is set to lead the Rhinos defence.
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