Sabah to conduct second trials to select players for President Cup

The Sabah FA will be conducting the second phase of selection trials to select players for its President’s Cup squad 2012 at the Likas Stadium on Friday (tomorrow).

The State President’s Cup squad Head Coach Johnny Dominicus (pictured left) said the one-day trials will start at 8.30am.

“We have identified 36 players from the first phase of selection trials last week. We hope they can make it this Friday,” said Johnny when met yesterday.

He added that after the selection the team is expected to resume their centralised training by next week.

“Time is running out, as the President’s Cup challenge 2012 is expected to kick off on January 26,” he said.

“We are looking for 22 players to form the squad. We already have three, who are based with the senior team,” said Johnny, referring to Leopold Alfonso Otong, Md Rozaimi Abd Rahman and Sabri Sahar.

The trio will be registered with the President’s Cup team but are part of the senior side.
However, anyone of them is eligible to play for the President’s Cup.

With the exception of midfielder Rozaimi, who is likely to play a key role in the senior side under Head Coach Justin Ganai, Leopold and Sabri could play a part in the State Under-21 side.
Of the 36, 11 of the players are from this season’s squad.

But Johnny warned that there is no automatic entry for the 11 into the team, insisting that the selection panel, to be headed by Justin will only pick the best 22.

The selected players for the second phase of selection trials are Marwan Kadir, Saiful Khuzuiri Mohd Yassin, Muhammad Bin Mohd Safar, Eyo Mathew, Freao Filemon Saih, Mohd Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman, Jetko Romedius, Mohd Sifihi Yusof, Jamal Salam, Mohd Nazreen Jumat, Umareng Bacok, Adnan Arman, Wahyuddin Rahit, Mohd Razle Puteh, Mohd Badrul Affendy, Aldrine Augus, Shazree Ruhif Bin Samail, Denisi Mehkadan, Md Azri Awang Noh, Justinus Jalang, Erwin Rusfian, Nikyus Saiddatul, Razip Gafar, Jilster Peter and Maxsius Musa.
The 11 from this season’s squad are Endre S. Tipay, Robson Randy Rining, Dendy Lowa, Nazrin Ramli, Mohd Didie Arizal, Azuan Azmah, Mohd Zul Mansshah Aling, Zackkalani Antanom, Bryan Thomas Simon, Mohd Adiafandi Dullah and Apolinario Talakos.