DPMM FC edge ABDB in friendly match

DPMM FC defeated the Royal Brunei Armed Forces Sports Council (MS ABDB) 1-0 in a friendly match at the Mini Stadium in Jerudong yesterday.

Although registering a win, DPMM FC head coach Vjeran Simunic is still not satisfied with his team's performance due to missing several of his players.

"We trained six times a week and the team is building up. However, some of the DPMM FC players are not available in the squad," said the veteran Croatian after the match yesterday.

Simunic is without several big names in training due to the players' commitment in next month's SEA Games and is awaiting the release of few players who currently played for MS ABDB.

Yesterday's friendly also saw two new imports on trial playing for DPMM FC.

Bogdan Bogdanovic from Montenegro and Mourad Besselink from Netherlands are both seen playing as a striker.

And once again, Simunic stressed that DPMM FC need to be tested by foreign teams in return to see the real strength of his team.

"When we play friendlies against the local sides, we produced good results recently. But I want to see DPMM FC playing against stronger teams such as from Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia or maybe Thailand," he said.

Simunic added that he is still finding the right solution to prepare DPMM FC before returning to the Singapore League.

"Yes, our focus is to play again in the S League. But we need to work hard on the team especially the players fitness and finding the right players to represent the team," he said.

On the three new imports who have already signed for the team - Tales Ricardo dos Santos, George O'Callaghan and Osman Basiru - Simunic said that the trio have all shown an astounding performance.

"They have impressed me and I can see the improvements. But like I said earlier, they need competitive matches to test themselves and to fit in with the local players for greater understanding," Simunic said.

Meanwhile, DPMM FC are expecting two more import trialists to fill the one more vacant spot (fourth import) in the team.

The two players, Woukoue Mefire from Cameroon will be arriving tomorrow (Oct 29) and Bulgarian Ivan Karamanov is expected to arrive on Oct 30.

Two weeks ago, DPMM FC was given the greenlight by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to rejoin the S-League.

AFC in a letter sent to the Brunei's national football governing body, National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) stated that the confederation has no issues for the club to make a return to play in Singapore.

Meanwhile, DPMM FC is still waiting a reply from the Singapore League organising committee to be accepted to play in the S-League next year.

Borneo Bulletin