Kelantan start as favourites in Malaysia Cup

Defending champions Kelantan are ready for an explosive start to their Malaysia Cup campaign when they face unheralded Sarawak in a Group C match at the State Stadium in Kuching today.

The Red Warriors are definitely the team to watch out for – having won the Charity Shield, Super League crown and finishing runners-up to Terengganu in the FA Cup final – this season.

For the Malaysia Cup, Kelantan have injected more firepower upfront with the loan signing of Pahang strikers Mohd Azamuddin Akil and R. Surendran.

This has left Kelantan packed with awesome strength in attack. National striker Norshahrul Idlan Talaha will lead the attack while skipper Mohd Badhri Radzi, Mohd Shakir Shaari, Nurul Azwan Roya and S. Chanturu will provide back-up from midfield. And they still have youngsters Ramzul Zahini Adnan and Mohd Nizad Ayub and seasoned campaigner Mohd Khalid Jamlus on the bench.

Chanturu, who made a winning debut with Kelantan last season, believes they will again be the team to beat in the competition.

“We are serious about winning the Malaysia Cup and we have grown stronger with the inclusion of Azamuddin and Surendran,” he said.

“We don’t know much of the Sarawak team but we are going to go all out to make an impact in the opening game. We have two strong sides – Johor FC and Felda United – next in our group matches.”

There is one setback for Kelantan though – they have only two goalkeepers for the Malaysia Cup campaign.

First choice goalkeeper and national No. 1 Khairul Fahmi Che Mat is on national duty with the Under-23 squad for the Asian zone final round qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympics while reserve Nor­hadi Ubaidillah is recovering from a lung infection.

Khairul will miss the opening four matches in the group stage of the Malaysia Cup competition while Norhadi, who featured in the World University Games in China last month, has been told to rest for a month.

This leaves the Red Warriors with only Shahrizam Ismail and veteran Halim Napi to fall back on.
Sarawak head coach Robert Alberts acknowledged that his men would face “a Herculean task against the reigning Malaysia Cup champions”.

And he expects his players to come up with a spirited performance “if we are to advance into the knock-out round”.

The other interesting opening round match should be between T-Team of Terengganu and Selangor in Group D.

T-Team are fast turning into the Red Giants’ bogey team, having won twice (2-0, 2-1) in the Super League this season.

Selangor are looking to revive their fortunes after a lacklustre season thus far and coach K. Devan will have his work cut out for him as the Giants eye a record 33rd Malaysia Cup title.