Kota Kinabalu: Coach Milomir Seslija was delighted to see two Sabahans who each contributed a goal to help Malaysia lift the Merdeka Cup by beating Myanmar 2-0 in the final at the Darul Makmur Stadium last Saturday. He told Express Sports that it showed that Sabah have real quality players and it is a very good sign for the State team in the future. He said both Rozaimi Abd Rahman who scored the first goal and Junior Eldstal have the potential to be very great players.
"Rozaimi reminded me of Italian striker Filippo Inzaghi who has an instinct for positioning. He is also a very good team player as he worked very hard during the final and covered almost every inch of the field to help out his teammates just like a German player." "Junior on the other hand, not only showed that he is a very good defensive midfielder, he also displayed his ability to score goal as well."
However, he said both players should not let the success get to their heads instead they should work harder to further improve themselves. "Both of them are relatively young and they must build on the buzz and aim higher and not rest on their laurels." He also said that even though Rozaimi is expected to return to the State team after the SEA Games, he will not build the State team around the youngster in the 2015 Premier League season.
"It will be suicidal to build the team around one player because if the player is injured, or suspended, or jaded, the whole team will collapse as a result." "Every single player in the team is important. We are talking about a team who needs to perform consistently throughout the whole season so to me the whole squad must be good especially those on the bench as they will need to be at par with the first team players so that once they are called up to play, they can fit in like a glove.
" He also hoped that Kota Kinabalu born Junior who is currently playing for Sarawak will one day return to his roots and play for Sabah. The Bosnian who had gone to Kota Marudu on Wednesday to check out a player also disclosed that he is currently looking for local players who are good enough to join the squad. "I believe there are many talented players in the State.
I am open to any recommendation and I will travel to every district to check them out," he said. Meanwhile, another foreign import came for trials with the State team. 27-year-old Croatian Predrag Pocuca who is a centre back joined the team's training session at the Likas Sports Complex on Wednesday afternoon. The 1.87cm tall player who last played for Albanian Super League side KS Besa is the third import in town to try his luck with the Sabah team. The other two players who had arrived earlier are Altin Grbovic and Srecko Mitrovic.
