Sarawak boosted by new signings

Sarawak new signings for Malaysia Cup have arrived and started training with the squad yesterday.

They are Chung Keng Hong and Jaganathan Victor Arputharajoo, both from Angkatan Tentera Malaysia (ATM).

Chung played as a defender while Jaganathan is an attacking midfielder.

Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) president, Datu Sudarsono Osman when met at Stadium Negeri yesterday said the duo were roped in for their skills and never say die attitude.

“We see them playing against Sarawak and they are very outstanding players.

They played against us for ATM in a very important match and showed us the attitude and very high level of spirit,” he said.

The squad were obviously in jovial mood during training yesterday, as they were divided into two teams playing against each other.

Coach Robert Alberts in a brief pep talk before the game begin told players that they would be playing against very strong team, Kelantan.

He told the players to work very hard and we want to see goals, and the players did just that during the training.

Sudarsono who monitored from the sidelines together with Abu Bakar Marzuki and other team officials were clearly in good mood.

Sudarsono said the players are now more matured with the ball and having very high level of confidence, tactical discipline and much better than Sarawak earlier generation players.

“You can see their maturity. Those days the players they would pass the ball players just seeing shadows approaching them,” he jested.

Sudarsono said he had a very good feeling about this team and was optimistic they would spring some surprise with support from the fans.

"If you can remember what happen between Sarawak and Kedah.
"Technically and tactically we are so much behind. You can see how nervous the Kedah players were, shivering and looking for little excuse to call it off,” he reminisced the Ngap Sayot days when Sarawak played in front of full capacity.

Sudarsono stressed that Kelantan and Sarawak are having similarity in term of crowd support.
“Our strength is Sarawak spirit,” he said.

On the team preparation, Sudarsono said they had to revamp earlier schedule due to the draw.

“We are supposed to have friendly match with Felda United, of course now they don’t want because we will be in the same group,” he said.

Sudarsono added they were planning to have two or three matches in Kuala Lumpur and two matches in Kuching, with one of them playing at night in Stadium Negeri prior to Malaysia Cup.