Daily Express
Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Sukma team will use the friendly match against the Brunei Sukma squad tonight (Friday) at the Likas Stadium at 7pm to narrow down the choice of their final first 11 players for the Pahang Games early next month.
Team coach Matasan Ahmad when met on Thursday said with more than six first choice players drafted in by the senior squad, the Sukma team are now facing a dilemma to choose their best players for the squad.
"It was very unfortunate we have to lose our main players to the seniors but at the same time I am also very happy for the boys to have a chance to prove themselves at the top level."
"The game against Brunei will be a very good match for the new boys to show us how much they deserve to be in the team.
We hope they will all deliver their very best and give us the clear picture of their ability and thus give us the easier task to pick our ideal first team players.
Matasan said they will try their very best to form a formidable squad with the available players.
The six players promoted to the Super League team not including striker Rozaimie Abd Rahman who are currently with the Harimau Muda team in Europe are Zackalani Anthanom, Zulmanshah Aling, Dendy Lowa, Razid Gafar, Leopold Alfonso and Sabri Sahar.
It was understood that after much negotiation between the two team officials, Leopold, Sabri and Zackalani have been released to train with the team while the other three will only be available if the team qualified for the quarterfinal stage in the Sukma Games.
The team had earlier set a gold medal target in the games.
In the last Sukma Games held in Melaka they also reached the quarterfinal stage with the same scenario when they had to do without few of their first team players as they were called upon by the Super League team.
The team will have another second friendly match against Brunei on July 17 but the venue is yet to be decided.
