Friendlies to serve as tune-up
Published on: Monday, January 21, 2019
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Rhinos coach Jelius Ating (pic) will use the two friendlies against two top Philippines sides this week to fine tune his team before their season opener against JDT II at Likas Stadium on February 2.
The team left for Manila today (Monday) and they will play against Stalion FC at Stadium Binan, Laguna tomorrow (Tuesday) followed by the final match against Kaya FC at Philippines Football Federation Training Centre in Carmona Cavite on Thursday.
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Both are top flight teams in the Philippine Professional League and Jelius believes they will give a stern test to his payers.
“These will be our only competitive pre-season matches before the opening game against JDT II, so it is important that we utilise them to see how well our preparation is at the moment. The two match results are not important for us right now, what I want to see is the team’s performance during the two matches and what needs to be done to further improve the team when we return,” he said on Sunday.
He said one import prospect, Park Taesu from South Korea who plays in defence will travel together with the other 18 players led by captain Rawilson Batuil, Rozaimie Rohim, Robson Rendy Rining, Mohd Azizan Nordin, Justin Samaan, Ummareng Bacok, Ricco Nigel Milus, Jenius Karib, Dendy Lowa, Mafry Balang, Randy Baruh Samson, Maxsius Musa, Sabri Sahar, Evan Wensley Wenceslaus, Mohd Azwan Abd Fattah, Rahman Shah Marajeh, Melky Balang and Elias Sulaiman.
The only import remaining from last season Rodoljub Paunovic, who is still contracted with Sabah Football Association, will not travel with them as he is still nursing a slight injury.
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Jelius also said he is not too concerned that he may have to start the season with only one import player.
“We have to be prepared that we will begin our challenge with only one import player. It is certainly a handicap but we must take note that we started well with one less import last season and the back four then were all locals as well.
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“We must focus on what we have at the moment ... we have to be fully prepared for all possibilities. That’s why we will focus on local players in this trip and luckily we are going to have two tough matches for me to assess the capabilities of the team.”
He added that the team’s short preparation period this season has made it harder to find the right import players but the availability of almost all the players from last season made the preparation much easier. - GL Oh