Ong says state have a lot of talented youngsters as Harimau Muda set for S’wak friendly
KUCHING: Harimau Muda A chief coach Ong Kim Swee who was once among the pillars of strength for Sarawak’s Bujang Senang football outfit yesterday expressed his views that there is a dearth of talented players locally.
“One of them is Ashri Chuchu…(he) is within our sight and we do hope that he will recover in time for the national call up at SEA Games next year,” said the state’s former midfield maestro when asked to comment on local football talents.
The Malaccan player who is tipped to become one of the potential candidates for the number one coaching job with the senior Harimau Malaya is in town together with his young charges for tonight’s friendly against the state side.
A fiery duel is expected when the homesters play host to the highly rated national under 23 squad at State Stadium with the kick off at 8.15pm.
During yesterday’s press conference which announced details of the friendly match, Ong was accompanied by his skipper Fadhli Shas while state chief coach, Robert Alberts was accompanied by skipper Shahrol Saperi.
According to Ong, there are three Sarawak players who were recently recruited into Harimau Muda B team which is coached by Mazlan Wahed, one of the former state’s top goalkeepers in the 1990s.
He did not elaborate further on how the local hopefuls were recruited and on whether there are anymore to be shortlisted for the junior back up squad.
Ong however had nothing but heaps of praises for the local side and said tonight’s game as a good opportunity for him to test the eight newly recruited players for his side.
“Our major assignment next year would be defending the gold medal at the coming SEA Games and we ought to tie up any loose ends,” said Ong who had to shoulder the mountain of expectations after the recent failure of the senior side in defending their title in this year’s AFF Suzuki Cup.
After winning gold at last year’s SEA Games, Harimau Muda
squad is on a high roll and is expected to entertain local fans when they lock horns with the newly reinforced state team which will field newly signed Ivan Babic in the forward, home coming Bobby Gonzales and newbie Mafry Balang.
Meanwhile Alberts said his side is looking forward to tonight’s game as the final phase of getting the local side in ship shape before the start of the season next month.
“We will try to get a good combination of football and play more of a modern game,” he said on the match which served as a good exposure for the Crocs playing against a highly rated national junior team.
Commenting on Babic, Alberts said the Croatian had proven his ability on the pitch with the display of professional attitude as a football player.
“With a good background in football, Ivan has the ability of eyeing for the right spot on the pitch and we need players like him to score goals,” he said on the import who is looked up by the fans as a goal scoring player.
Local fans are encouraged to come early to the stadium to get their match tickets is priced at RM5 and to avoid traffic congestion at the venue.
Meanwhile, tonight’s friendly match should be treated lightly by the homesters who must put their acts together in convincing the local fans that there are better days to come for their favourite team.
Demoted to the Premier League, the homesters must view the friendly as a tough match against the upcoming future national senior squad players who will soon enough take over centre stage from their aging seniors.
Alberts, their determined coach will also need to show his mettle in assembling some sort of a newly reinforced state team which will have to brave cruel criticisms and overly expectations by the fans.
The top brass at Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) on the other hand may have to brace themselves for another season of roller coaster ride if the well calculated risks they took in renewing Albert’s contract, hit a miss.
Tonight’s game may just be a friendly preview of what the state team is all about after going through the recent months of soul searching and reinforcements but only the fans can tell if the homesters are their safest bet.