Kota Kinabalu: Sabah are ready for their opening President Cup 2012 campaign against Johor in Likas Stadium on Feb 2 at 4.15pm, said head coach Johnny Dominicus.He said the team for the past one-month has been working hard especially on their fitness level and the players are raring to see action on the big stage.
"The spirit of the team is very high with the training session that they were given. They are in very good shape, fitness wise there is no problem and I am confident they will deliver."
According to him, the team has played eight friendly matches so far including three against the senior team and they are getting better and better with each match.
"When we first played in the friendly matches, the players were not yet ready physically but still put up a good match against the senior team. But the performances from the last three matches have shown that they are getting sharper as they scored at will against their opponents with high scores."
He added that only goalkeeper Nik Yus Saiddatul Sofien B. Yusup from Labuan who played for Sime Darby team last season is currently on the injury list while rightback Mohd Izdihar Qaedi Bin Jidi who had a hamstring problem has already started light training.
Meanwhile, goalkeeping coach Awal Taham said he is satisfied with the progress of his trainees so far.
The three apart from Nik are last season's first choice Andre S. Tipay and Robson Rining.
"All three are good learners and have improved leaps and bounds since they were put under me."
"Apart from the routine training session, they were given a lot of weight training sessions in the gym to improve on their particular muscles," he added.
The new look President Cup squad this year has been challenged by team manager Juil Nuatin to do better than last season where they managed to reach the quarter-final stage.
The team will next play Melaka on Feb 6, followed by the match against Bukit Jalil Sports School on Feb 9.
