» »Unlabelled » Coach Johnny appeals to young S’wak footballers BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News » Sports - New 2 Borneo

15:50:00

Coach Johnny appeals to young S’wak footballers BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News » Sports - New 2 Borneo

Coach Johnny appeals to young S’wak footballers

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:55 AM PST

by Matthew T. Umpang, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on January 1, 2014, Wednesday

KUCHING: New Sarawak President's Cup head coach Johnny Dominicus certainly has his job cut out for him.

Since his appointment, the highly motivated coach has shown determination to leave no stone unturned to turn around the fortune of youth football in the state.

First and foremost, he laments the situation in which young talented players have turned down the chance of donning the state colours.

"Sarawak have many talented youngsters but one issue remains to be addressed is that some of our bright and young talents are wasted… wasted because they refuse to progress further," he explained.

Though he spoke passionately about the problem, he could not be drawn to reveal names except hinting about "a player or two" from a certain division and "a few who live in the interior."

While he is not one to force anyone to join the state youth squad, he is extending his open arms to those who might have a change of heart in future.

"I guess many of these youngster are afraid that there is no future for them in football. I can assure them that football can indeed be a career now in Malaysia and the prospects looks bright," he said.

He added that he could not imagine what force Sarawak can become if only most or all of its talented youngsters agree to play for the state.

Johnny knows what he is talking about. The Sabah-born coach comes to Sarawak with a proven track record.

Having led Sabah to highly successful campaigns in the President's Cup and Sukma (Malaysia Games), he has now drawn up a special development plan for the state youth team.

"To realise my plans and ambitions for the team, I hope all players that I wanted to work with can cooperate well with me. I have promised that I will achieve something with Sarawak and I want the players to first start believing in me," he pledged.

His first competitive match in charge of the state team in the President's Cup U-23 football tournament will be on Jan 27.

Print Friendly

To enable your comment to be published, please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. This includes vulgar user names.

Team Corbusier to the fore in 2013

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:53 AM PST

KUCHING: On a sunny Monday afternoon in the city's Satok area, a car porch was a hive of activity as a group of youngsters were being instructed by coach Shaiful Helmi to set up the equipment. As the man with the pony-tail barks out the orders to Team Corbusier's development riders, it was clear it was not an easy training session.

Welcome to day two of Team Corbusier's season ending training camp.

Earlier, over lunch coach, Shaiful had gone over the day's training plans with this sportswriter.

"We are going to do an interval session on stationary trainers. It is the best way to do this sort of training," said Shaiful.

Interval training is when athletes are pushed to the maximum for short bursts and then repeated over and over again.

As the Corbusier riders gathered around, he explained the need for this workout.

"Doing this allows you to cycle at your maximum for longer periods," explained Shaiful to the Corbusier juniors.

Attending the session were their top junior Garry Tay, whom team principal Safri Mohammed is campaigning to get noticed by national selectors.

Up and coming juniors like Azka Nabil, Noel Lim and Jared Chua also attended the session with seniors Zaid Ismail and Charles Diking.

"I attended the pre-season training camp and it really helped me. Previously, I never attempted to breakaway in a race. That camp gave me the confidence to do it," said the Kuching Politeknik student, who has had a breakthrough season with top ten finishes in several races.

The training camp covered six days, which saw them logging 300-plus kms.

"It was an exhausting but great camp. I learned a lot and coach Shaiful also gave us a new training plan for next season," said Noel Lim, who won the Bintulu Criterium's U-21 event.

Details like this probably explain why 2013 belongs to Team Corbusier.

No Sarawak team, in recent memory, have ever had a training camp to start the year and certainly none have ever had camp to close out the year.

They are the only club team to race in UCI events like the Jelajah Malaysia and Sabah's Tour of Borneo.

In their first UCI stage race, they scored a podium when their Aussie pro Paul van der Ploeg sprinted to second place in the third stage of the Jelajah. It would be Sarawak cycling's first ever podium at that level of competition, quite an achievement for a small unknown Borneo club.

They upped their presence when Ploeg powered to the race leader's yellow jersey in the first stage of the Sabah event.

That would be Sarawak cycling's first ever UCI stage win.

Ploeg would go on to win the Eliminator event for Australia in the World Championship in South Africa

In Sarawak races, they dominated like no team ever had since the days of Team Kenbirds back in the late 1980s.

They started off the season with a dominating victory in the CycleFest Sarawak with Indon pro Fito Prilanji giving them the win in Cat One.

They also won the team title in addition to the points and mountain jerseys.

Charles Diking would add to that with his win in Cat Two which saw him solo 45km to the finish.

He was aided by team coach Supian Nor and Garry Tay in his first race for Corbusier since coming over from 3GX.

Supian would take the Kenyalang prize as top Sarawakian in Cat Two.

Top support rider Sylvester Ding would help them win the Cat Three team title while finishing in the top three.

Their only blemish in the CycleFest was when Saxon Racing top them in the opening day's team time trial.

Saxon would also prove to be their nemesis in the Lundu MTB Challenge when their Awang Adib Awang Sufian beat Tay in the junior time trial.

Awang Adib also won the junior criterium ahead of Viking's Mahathir Norsman and Saxon's Hamif Kamaludin. For most of the season, though, Corbusier was unstoppable.

They managed to get sponsorship from Promenade Hotel Group and PowerBar which allowed them to race in the Peninsula.

They did well in races like the Harian Metro 1Malaysia MTB GP series where they won the Terengganu leg's U-23 Men's XC and Men's Masters event.

Team captain Laurel Lauridsen Adrian and Tay were first and second to cross the line in the U-23 with Supian winning the Masters event. Supian would go on to win the series' master's crown.

They also raced in the Sapura Kencana Sepang Criterium series which saw Tay coming a close second behind Malaysian junior Afiq Huzni in the third race.

With Indon pros Fito Prilanji, Yudi Rachmad and Prio Saputro leading them in the Sarawak Health Challenge, they would win the race with Laurel outsprinting two rivals after a fine lead-out from Yudi.

Viking used the services of Indon juniors Reza Nuracman and Tegar Maulana to deny Tay the junior title.

Reza would beat Tay after a strong lead-out by Tegar to win the 56km race.

Meanwhile, Sarawak women cyclists had a breakthrough year when Junaidah Juss, Caroline George and Rosnina Minggu were selected for the SEA Games project team.

Junaidah, a top Malaysian mountain biker in recent years, finally got to race at the highest regional level when she made the cut with Caroline also making the road team.

Taken as a whole, however, 2013 was a mediocre year with few quality races.

There was no season opener before the big CycleFest race.

The quality of the racing was below par as evidenced by junior Noel Lim almost beating Saxon's 30-something Patrick George in the Sarawak Health Challenge's Sarawak Closed event.

The race was dominated by Indonesians with not a single Sarawakian in the top ten. It is up to the various teams and cyclists themselves whether they want to upgrade their standards.

Corbusier has decided they want to be able to match the Peninsular teams.

Does the rest of the Sarawak peloton want to follow suit?

In the SEA Games, Malaysia had a poor showing with only a team silver in the men's road race and a bronze in the 100km team time trial.

2013 will also be remembered as the year of big crashes in the Health Challenge with several juniors badly hurt which required a trip to the emergency room.

There were also crashes in the race which saw several machines destroyed.

Malaysian track star Josiah Ng also crashed badly in early December during the World Cup event in Aguascalientes, Mexico. He ended up with broken ribs, collarbone and punctured lungs but is now recuperating well.

For 2014, the Health Challenge organised by the Sarawak Health Club's Kuching branch is looking to move to an earlier date.

Only in its second year, it is well run and now one of the biggest races in Kuching.

They are looking for funding to hold the race in June or July, 2014.

Print Friendly

To enable your comment to be published, please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. This includes vulgar user names.

Cameroonian’s death highlights Indonesia crisis

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:50 AM PST

TANGERANG, Indonesia: It was the dream of sporting glory that drew talented Cameroonian striker Salomon Bengondo to Indonesia – but his story ended in poverty, illness and an untimely death, in a country failing to pay its footballers.

The withholding of wages by Indonesian clubs has reached "catastrophic proportions" according to international players' union FIFPro – and Bengondo is the second foreign player known to have died after going unpaid.

In 2012 Paraguayan striker Diego Mendieta died of a viral infection after he too was unable to afford treatment, following months without wages.

Bengondo arrived in Indonesia in 2005, a promising young footballer who hoped to build a career in Southeast Asia's biggest nation.

"He had every chance, he had great hopes," his brother Beliby Ferdinand told AFP this week at the modest house that they used to share, near the capital Jakarta.

Bengondo died last month at the age of 32, unable to afford hospital treatment for a mystery illness. His former club, Persipro Bond-U, still owed him large sums of money, according to his brother and Indonesian football officials.

Like many African players, Bengondo came to Indonesia in search of a higher salary. While the wages may not be in the same league as European clubs, Indonesian sides are generally better-paying than those in Africa.

He had been so incensed at his treatment that he took to the streets to beg in protest with his African teammates in 2012, apparently with little effect. "The club still did nothing", Ferdinand, 27, said.

Brendan Schwab of FIFPro warned the issue of Indonesian clubs failing to pay players had reached "literally catastrophic proportions".

"We can't think of a country in the world of football where the problems of the players are more pronounced or more serious than Indonesia," Schwab, head of FIFPro's Asian division, told AFP.

It is not just foreign players going unpaid. The Indonesian professional footballers' association (APPI) says 14 clubs in the country' s two top-tier divisions still owe salaries from the 2012/2013 season.

Bengondo played for several clubs and was signed by Persipro, based in Probolinggo in the east of the main island of Java, for the 2011/12 season. The club is in the Premier Division, the second highest level of football in Indonesia. But according to his brother, Bengondo received only 20 million rupiah (around US$1,650) when he started with the club, and nothing afterwards.

He was supposed to receive an extra lump sum and 16,625,000 rupiah a month for eight months, according to a copy of his contract seen by AFP.

Persipro could not be contacted for comment on Bengondo's case despite repeated attempts by AFP to get in touch with the club.

Despite the lack of salary, Bengondo played for the club until the end of the season before returning to the city of Tangerang, outside Jakarta, where he lived with his brother.

He was already feeling unwell, suffering from chest pains as well as stomach problems, Ferdinand said.

In Tangerang he continued to train with other Cameroonians and eked out a living playing in occasional matches between villages. Towards the end of November, he began feeling increasingly ill and visited a local hospital and later a clinic where he underwent tests and was given medication to help with his stomach problems.

As his health deteriorated, he would have like to seek treatment at a bigger hospital or even return to Cameroon.

But he did not have the means, his repeated appeals to Persipro to give him the money he was owed having failed, his brother said. He died in the early hours of Nov 29.

His brother said it is still unclear what exactly he was suffering from and he is waiting for the results of an autopsy.

Bengondo's body was flown back to Cameroon earlier this month with funding from the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI).

Ferdinand, also a footballer but currently not signed to any club, said he still hoped to claw back the money from Persipro and then return to Cameroon. The APPI is also trying to help.

PSSI chairman Djohar Arifin Husin said clubs were suffering funding problems as competition for sponsorship was tough and since 2011 professional teams have been banned from getting local government funding, a vital source of revenue in the past.

Attempts to improve players' rights have also been overlooked in recent years as Indonesian football chiefs struggled to resolve a feud between two rival federations, which spawned two top-tier divisions. Both sides agreed in March to reunite under the PSSI after world governing body FIFA warned Indonesia could be banned from international competition. — AFP

Print Friendly

To enable your comment to be published, please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. This includes vulgar user names.

City form gives Pellegrini Christmas cheer

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:49 AM PST

SWANSEA, United Kingdom: Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes that his side's profitable December has set them up to regain the Premier League title in 2014.

City won six of their seven league games in December, only dropping points in a draw at Southampton, and are now just a point off leaders Arsenal heading into their first game of 2014 at Swansea City on Wednesday.

The 2012 champions were eighth in the table at one point in November and looking in danger of being cut adrift by their title rivals, only to recover the deficit.

"I think it was a fantastic month for us," Pellegrini said.

"In the Premier League, from the last seven we won six. It was very important for us to recover points. Arsenal were six points ahead of us so it is very important to finish the year in the position we wanted to be.

"To recover six points in a month is not easy. We continue in the Capital One (League) Cup and Champions League also, so I think the first six months of the year (season) was very good for us. Now in the second half we try to continue winning."

Goalkeeper Joe Hart suffered a nasty cut below his eye in City's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, but he will be fit to face Swansea after having six stitches in the wound.

Hart has been in good form since returning to Pellegrini's starting line-up in the Premier League after a period on the bench following a number of high-profile errors early in the season.

"Joe Hart has a cut beneath his eye, but nothing important," explained Pellegrini.

"It is not dangerous and he can play without any risk.

"I hope of course he will be at his best. Everyone knows why Joe Hart is the first goalkeeper here in England. He played two or three years in a very high performance. He can do it and we hope he will continue in the same way."

Pablo Zabaleta, Yaya Toure and Alvaro Negredo are all set to return to City's starting line-up after being rested for the game with Palace, which came soon after their Boxing Day win over Liverpool.

"Pablo played against Liverpool on Boxing Day to the limit," said Pellegrini.

"It was a risk to have a massive injury and too near for him to play two games in 44 hours. Toure and Negredo were a little tired and will be fresh for Swansea."

Swansea manager Michael Laudrup is hoping for improvements from his side in the second half of the season after failing to reach his points target for the half-way stage.

The Swans have also had to contend with an energy-sapping Europa League campaign, which has taken its toll on a squad that finished ninth last season.

"I thought we could (reach the) turn on 23 points, so we are a couple short of where I expected to be," said Laudrup, whose side amassed 21 points in their first 19 games. "But I think we can do better in the second half of the season and we can end up more or less where we did last year. I said before the season that our target is to consolidate the club as a mid-table team.

"If we can do that this season, which has been so complicated with all the European games as well, it would be for me a big success."The south Wales club are only five points above the bottom three, but Laudrup believes that there are 11 teams at risk of relegation.

"We cannot think we are outside the 11 teams and say this is not about us," he said.

"That would be very, very arrogant to say as a team who have only been in the Premier League for two and a half seasons, and I am not arrogant." — AFP

Print Friendly

To enable your comment to be published, please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. This includes vulgar user names.

LeBron celebrates 29th birthday with win

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:48 AM PST

DENVER: LeBron James celebrated his 29th birthday by scoring 26 points and adding 10 assists Monday to spark the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat over the Denver Nuggets 97-94.

The four-time NBA Most Valuable Player helped the Heat improve to 24-7 while the Nuggets lost their seventh game in a row, the team's longest such skid since April of 2003, and fell to 14-16.

James missed the Heat's win at Portland on Saturday with left ankle and right groin issues and was a game-time decision against Denver, but responded with a solid performance, although netting fewer points than his NBA average of 35 points in games on his birthday.

"Great road win," James said.

"We came in with a mindset that we wanted to end 2013 on the right note and we did. They made a run and we were able to withstand that and get a great road win."

Dwyane Wade scored 12 points for the Heat but departed in the third quarter with back spasms and did not return.

Chris Bosh added 17 points for Miami while Ty Lawson led Denver with 26 points.

Lawson sank a 3-pointer to put Denver ahead 91-90 but James answered with a jumper to put the Heat on top for good.

Ray Allen, who came off the Heat bench to score 13 points, followed with a basket before Wilson Chandler's dunk pulled the Nuggets within 93-92.

Miami's Michael Beasley answered with a 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining to give the Heat a 96-92 edge.

Randy Foye hit a layup for Denver but Allen added a free throw to put Miami ahead by the final margin.

Lawson missed a 3-pointer but the Nuggets grabbed the ball to set up a last-second shot.

The opportunity was squandered when Denver could not inbounds the ball within five seconds, committing a turnover to seal Miami's triumph.

"Heck of a shot by Beas down the stretch," James said.

"Everybody made a contribution. We believe everyone can make a big contribution. We trust everyone.

"He made a great shot and we got a big win." — AFP

Print Friendly

To enable your comment to be published, please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. This includes vulgar user names.

Bad weather affects Crocs preparation

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:55 PM PST

by Matthew T. Umpang, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on December 31, 2013, Tuesday

KUCHING: The monsoon season has hampered training plans by Sarawak coach Robert Alberts.

His one wish is for the team to practise on a proper pitch before the start of the next season barely three weeks away.

According to him, the Crocs have faced this problem since they resumed training after the end of the last season.

The continued pouring rain has caused soggy and muddy field conditions.

"It is always hard to train in these type of field conditions. The season starts soon and we need to play at least once on a proper ground condition," Alberts complained.

The squad did not escape such conditions when they had their recent training camp in neighbouring Indonesia.

"We were there from Dec 7 to 20 and not even one day during our time there was the weather good. I recalled that one friendly match (against Persekam Metro FC on last Dec 9) even had to be called off," he stressed.

He had even explored the idea of training outside Kuching but his contacts reported that elsewhere such as Miri have also been experiencing the same weather conditions.

The head coach was updating the media following last Sunday's warm-up match against the state President's Cup team.

His squad won 13-0 in atrocious ground conditions at the Stadium Negeri.

Sarawak will open their 2014 Super League campaign in an away match against the Armed Forces on Jan 18.

Print Friendly

To enable your comment to be published, please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. This includes vulgar user names.