Kota Kinabalu: Datuk Ong Kim Swee praised the spirit and commitment of his players as Sabah FC maintained their perfect start to the season with a 2-1 win over Kuching City FC at the State Stadium on Monday night.
However, the head coach was critical of the poor condition of the pitch due to a heavy downpour earlier in the day which had affected the quality of the play.
“It was not an easy game. To me the condition of the pitch was not suitable (for the match) with the non-stop rain since noon and I was made to understand that there was heavy rain the night before as well.
“We must think about the performance of the players playing under such conditions and there were a lot of long balls employed by both teams.
“The match tonight only showed the desire and seriousness by both teams and my players have displayed very high commitment to play under this condition,” he said.
Despite the soaky pitch, Sabah FC were the early aggressors with Saddil Ramdani having the first look at goal as early as in the third minute but his effort was thwarted by Kuching City FC’s goalkeeper Julian Garcia Schwarger.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 23rd minute when Saddil opened the scoring after receiving a pass from Park Taesu to put Sabah FC one up.
However, the home side managed to draw level before the end of the first half through their import player Abu Kamara.
The continuous rain in the second half saw both teams miss several opportunities to add another until Telmo Castanheira slotted in the winning goal for Sabah FC in the 57th minute with an assist from Darren Lok.
With the three points, Sabah FC are now in second place with nine points behind Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) FC who also won three matches in a row but have a better goal difference.
Sabah FC’s next game is against Sri Pahang FC at the Darul Makmur Stadium on March 12.
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