Today’s match will be our 10 match of the season at home versus Sabah FA. It is dubbed the Borneo Derby. And any match that is dubbed a derby is normal a fierce match. However technically a derby is between 2 teams from the same area or city. Like MUFC versus MCFC or Arsenal versus Totenham or Barcelona versus Espanyol. There fore this match is not about being a derby but more playing for the honor to be the best team in the Malaysian league from Borneo.
And yes than these matches have a history. The best of Borneo, and that is something to play for. The fact that makes this mach interesting is that this season 3 Sabah players have joined their rivals Sarawak and now play for us. And all 3 players have shown that they have the spirit that comes to play for Sarawak, SAYOT. I am sure that Mafry, Ronni and Boby will give heir out most best and want to show that they made the right move to join Sarawak.
Of course by now all supporters are aware of the fact that we have another casualty in Azizan Saperi. He injured himself while landing on the field last week in Kuala Lumpur. He is now this season the fourth player that has injured himself on his left knee and is due for an operation on the ACL soonest.
Already we had Asri, Ronald and Zulaslan out with similar injuries and operations.And looking back at how they sustained the injuries they are all similar. They got injured without physical contact, but due to the bad field conditions. And the quality of the fields in Malaysia is really a big concern. Also Sarawak play that kind of game where we want to pas the ball around with movement. For that we need a decent field.
Also for today’s match we are depending on a decent field again so that our team can continue their improvement of the passing game. We are still working on it and we need to be at our best to win the 3 points today. The good news is that Guy is back from his suspension and that Roni is fully recovered and that Ivan showed last match that his match fitness is coming back after his lay off due to his injury.
Even now that we are without real attacking flank players I am still confident that when the players play to their strength we can overcome that fact and find new ways to score the goals. One last thing that I do want to mention is, now that Sarawak has been on the longest winning streak in the records it is very nice to observe that when walking in town many youngsters are proudly wearing the Sarawak jersey. It will be another fantastic atmosphere in the stadium tonight when all supporters turn up again in the Sarawak jerseys and get behind the team.
With warmest sportive regards
Robert Alberts
