Preview: Sarawak vs Betaria

Sarawak looks certain to retain their lead in the Malaysia Premier League when they take on bottom side Betaria FC at the Sarawak State Stadium this coming Friday night.

The Crocs are on fire as they stroll by almost every game played, beating their opponents, and keeping one of the Crocs most elusive runs in history; being unbeaten after 17 games in the league.

Accompanying their good run is a 5 winning streak, and the rights to boast of the best defense in the Premier League, with the later shared with current league runners-up, Simde Darby FC.

For this up-coming game, head coach Robert Alberts is expected to give the home crowd something to cheer for throughout the match as he hopes his boys will go all out to win big and match Sime Darby’s scoring machine.

Bobby Gonzales is expected to retain his role up-front, with Muamer Salibasic being placed behind him as a playmaker and attacking midfielder.

Nonetheless, Roberts may just opt to rest Muamer due to his slight hamstring injury, and give the spot to Zamri Morshidi, who will partner Bobby as a striker.

The anchor of the engine room looks certain to be owned by Junior Eldstal after his impressive display at Stadium Hang Jebat last Monday, while Azizan Baba looks likely to get the nod to replace Joseph Kallang’s role at the flanks as Joseph remains sidelined due to injured. The other flank will either be Zamri’s or Sharol’s, with Sharol having the upper hand due to his captaincy status.

Guy Bwele would also be deployed to play this Friday as Roberts will look to place him in the heart of the pitch as an effective ball winner.

Sarawak’s defense will not see much change with the regular back four (Ramesh Lai, Ronny Harun, Mafry Ballang and Hairol Mokhtar) covering Sani Annuar.

On the opposing side of the pitch, Betaria FC is expected to field a strong team as coach G. Selvamohan looks to secure three points and avoid relegation.

Playing without much pressure, Betaria will be counting on their imports Hillary Echesa and Tomas Chovanec to deny Sarawak’s dream of becoming champions this season.  The team would also be strengthen by five ex-Sarawak players.

Nonetheless, the odds are indeed stacked highly against the Negeri Sembilan based team with Sarawak known well for being a hard nut to crack at home, with not less than 20,000 fans behind their team.

With that said, the biggest challenge for Robert Alberts men will indeed be non other than themselves as Sarawak has a tendency to be complacent once taking on less illustrious teams such as Betaria.

Despite that fact, fans of the Crocs are hopeful that a huge win will be recorded by their beloved team with fans Nico, Aj Jib and Madi Nawi expecting Sarawak to win by not less than a two goal margin tomorrow.