New Sabah Times
By FRANCIS XAVIER
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Rhinos will not be signing former Moldova Under-21 striker Petru Leuca despite the latter scoring a goal in their 4-2 win over Stallion FC in their pre-season friendly in the Philippines on Tuesday. The stateside has closed its door on the lanky striker due to injury.
Head coach Jelius Ating had been hopeful of having another look at the 28-year-old in their second friendly against Kaya FC at the Philippines Football Federation training centre field at San Lazaro Leisure and Business Park in Carmona, Cavite today.
Unfortunately, due to the injury, Leuca will play no part in the team to face Kaya FC, who finished runners-up in the Philippines Football League last season.
With the latest development, Jelius’ search for a striker goes on.
Instead, Jelius is forced to try out a new striker, a 30-year-old Brazilian Vinicius Calamari, who is expected to join the team today.
He will be joined by Korean hopeful Park Tae Su, who was part of the side that played against Stallion FC.
“I’m hopeful that the new player will give a good show and impress our head coach,” said team manager Henry Saimpon when contacted yesterday.
Meanwhile, Jelius said he is also hopeful that both the new player (Vinicius) and Park will play to their true colours. “Tomorrow (today) our opponents will be stronger than the first. So I believe this date with Kaya FC will test our true potential,” said Jelius.
For the record, this will be the second time the two sides are meeting.
Last year, they also played against each other during the Sabah Rhinos pre-season tour to the neighbouring country.
Then Sabah Rhinos lost 1-2.
“So I hope, all the players will give their best so that we more or less know our strength,” Jelius added. Commenting on the win over Stallion FC, he said it was rather a shaky start for his side.
“We looked rather fragile early in the game and only managed to get our momentum midway through the opening half. Our finishing was also quite poor, but I have no complaints because that was our first competitive match in quite a while.
“Although we were leading 4-0 on one occasion, we could have scored more with better finishing,” he said, while revealing that he deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation in the tie.
“The good thing about this trip was all the players have been given some minutes in the game. Tomorrow, I will also try to give as many players a chance to play a part in the match,” he said.
“I’m not looking forward to the result, as what is more important for me is I want to see our weaknesses and strengths so that we can rectify them once we return home,” he said.
Sabah Rhinos kick off their Premier League 2019 challenge against Johor Darul Ta’zim II at the Likas Stadium on Feb 2.
