KOTA KINABALU: An Indonesian international in Budi Sudarsono will be the man to watch as Sabah take on Police in the return leg of the FA Cup challenge at the Likas Stadium on Thursday.
The nippy attacking midfielder scored a spectacular equaliser by flicking the ball past Sabah’s young custodian Irwan Jamil in the first leg encounter last Friday where Sabah, despite taking a first-half 1-0 lead were forced to end their eight-match unbeaten run. But it was Budi’s teammate in Mohd Aliff Amiruddin who undid the Rhinos’ impressive run thus far this season by scoring the winner in the 62nd minute after Budi put his side on level terms two minutes after the break.
Sabah had not been beaten in the Premier League prior to the FA Cup second round clash. “He is certainly one player that we need to watch,” commented Rahman Zakaria.
“However, it would be wrong for us to entirely focus on him. What we would do is to play our game and play our hearts out,” he added. On Sabah’s part, he will certainly be banking on their top scorer Brazilian Andre Scotti Ossemer to score the goals.
Andre, who has netted seven goals in the Premier League and one in the FA Cup, where he scored the opener in the first leg encounter against Police, will have the company of either Bobby Gonzales or Salvester Sindeh to spearhead the Rhinos’ attack.
At the same time, Englishman Jamie Phoenix is another player that Sabah can count on to terrorise the visitor’s backline. The other foreign player in the Rhinos’ squad is Dragic Dalibor, a defender.
