Thursday, October 02, 2008
Malaysian Bits n Pieces
Shorter Hari Raya holidays for the national players
By ERIC SAMUEL
PETALING JAYA: The national football team will have a shorter Hari Raya holiday as they need to spend more time on improving their fitness ahead of the Merdeka Tournament from Oct 15-25.
Coach B. Sathianathan said that the players would have to report for centralised training at the Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya on Friday.
“My priority is to whip them back into shape,” said Sathianathan, who was unable to push the players to the limit during the fasting month.
He said that the players’ lack of fitness was evident during the playing tour of Slovakia from Sept 13-28 and the team lost three matches and drew one.
“There is no substitute for fitness and this was underlined in the matches we played in Slovakia,” said Sathianathan.
“I am glad we had these matches. If you are not fit, you go nowhere. I want to get the players back in top condition as soon as possible as we also need to do other things too.”
Sathianathan said that he would give a second chance to several players who under-performed in the tour.
“They have reason not to be able to give their best because they were fasting. I hope that they will get back in shape quickly when we resume training,” he said.
The six players from Kedah and Perak, who did not go on the tour because of their commitments in the AFC Cup quarter-finals, will rejoin the national training camp.
They are Badrol Bakhtiar, Mohd Khyril Muhymeen and Mohd Helmi Eliza Elias from Kedah and the Perak trio of S. Subramaniam, Mohd Nasril Nourdin and Mohd Hardy Jaafar.
Sathianathan said that he would field the strongest line-up for their final test match against Pakistan on Oct 10.
Meanwhile, Mozambique are the new addition to the eight-team Merdeka Tournament following Kazakhstan’s failure to confirm participation. The other teams are Vietnam, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sierra Leone.
Wednesday October 1, 2008
Razip named KL chief coach
PETALING JAYA: Kuala Lumpur have appointed former international Razip Ismail as the chief coach of their team for next season’s Premier League.
Razip, a member of the KL side who won the Malaysia Cup for three consecutive seasons from 1987, was the caretaker coach of the team last season. He replaces Gede Heinz Jurgen of Germany, who was released after the Premier League campaign in which KL finished second from bottom of the 13-team competition.
Wednesday October 1, 2008
UPB-MyTeam sign up Stanley and young Hariri
PETALING JAYA: UPB-MyTeam are keeping up with their tradition of signing up young talent.
The Super League club side have snapped up 19-year-old leftback Hariri Safii from Harimau Muda (national Under-19 squad) and 22-year-old Kuala Lumpur striker Stanley Bernard.
Chief coach Bojan Hodak said that they would continue to look for exciting young talents.
“We have more or less identified the team and have retained the bulk of the players from last season’s side,” said the former Croatian international.
“Perhaps, there is room for an experienced hand in the striker department and a stopper,” said Bojan, who has a smaller budget to work on for the new season. “We have no intention to go for star players.”
Stories from www.thestar.com.my
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