Courtesy: Daily Express


UMS need to make final push to reach grand final

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Kota Kinabalu: UMS FC will need nothing less than victories from their remaining two matches to make it into the grand final of the National Felda/FAM Futsal League as champions of Group B.

The women's team from Universiti Malaysia Sabah is currently in second place on 12 points and will likely qualify among the top four teams.

But team coach, Mohd Asyraaf Fong Abdullah, wants the team to finish at the top of the order to win the RM10,000 group champion prize.

UMS FC were bumped from the top spot yesterday after losing 2-0 to Selangor MPSJ FC who are also on 12 points but have a better goal difference.

Asyraaf said the team's performance was affected by having to play on a new surface, which his players are not so familiar with.

"Our record in this tournament has been good up to now.

But this different surface is something that our players are not familiar with and it has clearly affected our performance.

"And we are not the only team that is affected by the parquet surface court here, almost all the teams are saying the same thing about it," said Asyraaf, when contacted here, yesterday.

Conventional sports courts are fitted with a rubber mat surface, which is common in most futsal arenas throughout the country.

But the surface of the courts at the Sultan Abdul Halim In-door Stadium in Alor Setar, Kedah, has a slippery lacquer finish.

Three Sabah teams registered losses in their matches yesterday, much to the blame of the shining wooden courts.

Sabah men's team, who earlier lost their chance of qualifying for the grand final, were beaten 3-5 by Kelantan, while Sabah women's team slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Kuala Lumpur Putra Ria.

They are currently in fifth place on seven points and can still make it to the final but not without a fight to reclaim the final qualification fourth place slot, which is now occupied by Selangor MBPJ FC.

Other results saw Police moving up to third place on 10 points after beating Johor Melodi 3-0.

Meanwhile, after registering a 6-0 win over last place, Johor, yesterday, MBPJ, who now have 9 points, is set to meet UMS FC at 9am today.

"We have another tough match tomorrow against MBPJ.

They will be full of confidence after nailing Johor 6-0 yesterday so we will not be taking things lightly against them," said Asyraaf.

Among other fixtures today will be Sabah men's team versus Selangor at 10am and Sabah women's team against Johor Melodi at 11am.

UMS FC's final group match will be between KL Putra Ria in November.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com