Kota Kinabalu: Sabah won the inaugural edition of the National Women Football League 2023 following the 1-1 draw with Malaysian University in their final game of the season at UiTM Stadium on Saturday.
The team coached by Justin Ganai was in second place with 13 points before the match, one point behind Kelana United FC who had finished their game earlier.
Malaysian University on the other hand, were in third place with 11 points and still in with a chance to take the title with a victory on Saturday.
Sabah, who needed only a point to clinch the title with their superior goal difference over Kelana United, were made to sweat when their opponents broke the deadlock in the 84th minute through Nurfazira Sani.
Despite the setback, the team maintained their shape and substitute Siti Nursasha then came to Sabah’s rescue when she kept her cool to put the ball past the opposition’s goalkeeper three minutes later after a poor clearance by the Malaysian University defence.
With the one point, Sabah ended the season with 14 points from three wins, four draws and suffered only one loss to Kelana United.
Justin said after the game that he was delighted the team managed to accomplish their mission to win the title and congratulated both teams for an entertaining match.
“We had set an early target to win the title although at the start of the season, we were not sure of the standard of other teams.
“We only got to know their strengths and weaknesses along the way, and today we didn’t come out just to get a draw and we tried to play an attacking game,” he said.
He added that they need to prepare the team early for the defence of the title next season. “We need to prepare the team early next season as defending the title is more difficult than winning it.
“Many of our players are still very young. There are six 15-year-old players, some are 16-17 year-olds and they have potential to replace the seniors in the future.”
Justin also praised Football Association of Malaysia for organising the tournament and expressed his gratitude to Sabah Football Association management for their support of the team throughout the competition.
Meanwhile, Sabah’s Usliza Usman was named best player of the league while the best goalkeeper title went to teammate Asma Junaidi.
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