Rhinos suffer injury blow
Published on: Tuesday, February 13, 2024
By: GL Oh
The Sabah FC players in training on Sunday.
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah FC’s chances of winning the AFC Cup, Asean zonal semi-final against Macarthur FC of Australia today (Tuesday) suffered a huge blow with the absence of winger Saddil Ramdani.
He was said to have suffered from injury and was unable to travel with the team for the away match.
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The Indonesian international was exceptional in the group stage to help Sabah FC top the table with six assists including three against PSM Makassar.
Despite his absence and the team’s lack of competitive matches since December, head coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee is hoping his players can get a positive result from the match.
“It is going to be difficult as our season ended last year and since then we do not have a single competitive match until tomorrow while Macarthur have started well in the league and were unbeaten in seven games.
“However, we still have our main core players in the team and we have been training for the past four weeks.
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“Despite the shortcomings, we have to be careful in our approach against a team that is well prepared and try to get something out of it,” he said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Macarthur FC topped Group F in the preliminary rounds with 15 points en route to the semi-final stage.
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They registered five wins and suffered only one loss away to Phnom Penh Crown FC.
Their record of 23 goals scored and a plus 18-goal differential were the best of all group stage participants.
Sabah FC on the other hand, started well to get four wins and two losses to top Group H with 12 points.
They managed to score 19 goals and conceded nine.
Darren Lok, who scored six of the goals, will be the key player for Sabah FC together with his Brazilian strike partner Ramon Machado.
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