By FRANCIS XAVIER
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Rhinos ended their pre-season tour to Manila with an unbeaten record after holding hosts club, Kaya FC, to a one-all draw in their last match of the tour yesterday. The tie that was played at the Philippines Football Federation training centre field at San Lazaro Leisure and Business Park in Carmona, Cavite saw the visiting Sabah Rhinos take a 1-0 lead at half time.
Nippy flanker Maxsius Musa blasted home the opener before Kaya FC replied with a second-half goal. For the record, last year, Sabah Rhinos, who also went for a pre-season tour to the neighbouring country, were beaten 1-2 by the same side. Sabah Rhinos had won their first game by defeating Stallion FC 2-1 on Tuesday.
Yesterday, head coach Jelius Ating started three imports in his first team. All three are currently on trials with Brazilian striker Vinicius Calamari being the latest arrival. Petru Leuca, who was said to be injured, was a surprise starter for Jelius’ side. The former Moldova Under-21 international insisted to see action despite carrying an injury. Leuca, 28, and Calamari, 30, spearheaded the attack for the stateside.
The third import in the team was Korean defender Korea, Park Tae Su. The rest of the players that started the tie were captain Rawilson Batuil, Sabri Sahar, Elias Sulaiman, Randy Baruh, Mohd Azzizan Nordin, Maxsius and Dendy Lowa while Robson Rendy Rining started ahead of first-choice custodian Rozaimi Rohim. Meanwhile, team manager Henry Saimpon when contacted was happy with the performances of the team during the trip. “We are fortunate to have played these two quality matches, which I believe has helped us in many ways.
“Now, once we return home, it will be more about fine-tuning the team and rectifying certain weaknesses that we identified during these two games. “The two matches we played here in Manila also enabled us to know roughly the team’s strength. “Our head coach (Jelius) will look into several aspects (in/of the team) and I hope we will be ready for our opening game of the season on Feb 2. Henry admitted that it is important for Sabah Rhinos to be strengthened by quality foreign players.
“I hope Park will continue to put up a consistent performance. At the moment, he is the only one who impressed us. We will see how things go when we return home,” said Henry, adding that they will continue to have a good look at the Korean before making a decision. He said that they are also looking for a midfielder as well as a striker to partner Sabah Rhinos’ only foreign player in the team, Serbian Rodoljub Paunovic. The registration for foreign players closes on February 20. Sabah Rhinos are scheduled to kick start their campaign against Johor Darul Ta’zim II at the Likas Stadium.
