KOTA KINABALU: Fans in and around Kota Belud have been urged to turn up in full force when the Rhinos take on the Kota Belud Selection in a friendly at the Kota Belud Town Padang at 4.15pm today.
Team manager Rahman Zakaria said this is an opportunity for the fans in and around the district to see their team in action in their own backyard.
With Sabah’s home matches in the upcoming season likely to be played away from their usual hunting ground – the Likas Stadium – at least until January next year due to the faulty floodlights at the Stadium, this will only make this friendly tie not one to be missed!
Besides being used as part of their preparations for the new season, Rahman pointed out that another reason for them having the friendly in Kota Belud is to try to win the hearts of the fans.
“This is one of the few friendly matches outside the State Capital that we are going to play. After this we plan to go to Labuan and then either Keningau or Tenom.
“We might also go to Ranau or even Sandakan. But at the moment, only two venues have been finalised and that is Kota Belud and Labuan (taking on DPPM of Brunei on Nov 3).
Rahman said this will be the team that would mount their challenge for the new season.
“We are expecting our head coach (Drago Mamic) to parade his best squad at least for the first 45 minutes.
“At the same time, we are also trying out one or two foreign imports in the match,” he added.
The Rhinos are also likely to unveil a few new local imports in the match such as Nafuzi Zain of Kelantan, Wong Sai Kong of Perak, and Nizamuddin, who was formerly playing for KL Plus.
Besides the new local imports, Rahman said the rest of the players will also make the trip to Kota Belud as they will be holding a meet-the-player session to be held at the Sabah F2000 World Cup Powerboat Race 2007 booth.
Rahman said the meet-the-player session will be held from 3pm.
