BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (12 Jan 2013) – With less than a month to go to the start of the S-League 2013, invited team DPMM FC of Brunei have rated that they are 70% ready for the challenge ahead.
The team which finished as the second best team in the Singapore top flight last year, had already signed four of five available slots through Croatian defender Dino Drpic, Portuguese striker Joao Vitor Rocha De Carvalho Moreira, Guadeloupean midfielder Stephane Auvray and Brazilian defender Tales Ricarte dos Santos.
But in spite of this and even though the team did steamroll 7-0 past Royal Brunei Armed Forces Sports Council (MS ABDB) in their last friendly, chief coach Vjeran Simunic still feel that the team need a little more tweaking.
“The Bruneian players have grown up and they have been playing together for a while now. Even though we recently got back to full training but I’m not too worried because I can say that we are at 70% at the moment,” said Simunic (right in pix).
“What we need now is time. We have a lineup change of foreign players and we will need them to coordinate with the local players. Even if we have four (Lionel) Messis on the team, we won’t be able to do anything if they can’t play with the locals.
“Hopefully the local players can maintain the level they were at last year or even improve. They are not limited to where they are right now. I feel that we are able to compete with the other countries in the region.”
Asked if DPMM can improve on their position at the end of the season this year, Simunic replied: “it will not be an easy task to maintain our top-five target this year. (Champions) Tampines are an excellent team and have reinforced themselves to become stronger for this upcoming season as well.”
Pix by Aundry Gan
