MMT Junior eyeing second final appearance

KOTA KINABALU: Media Mix Team (MMT) Junior are eyeing a second final appearance in the ongoing Malaysia Borneo Football Cup competition here.

After a runner-up finish in the Under-11 category on Tuesday, MMT Junior are just one victory away from another shot at the title, this time in the under-12 competition.

In yesterday’s third and fourth round matches, MMT Junior defeated Northern Inland of Australia 3-1 while registering a scoreless draw with Tunku Putra at the Penampang Stadium.

MMT Junior, who secured two wins, one draw and one defeat, will today face Dreaming Football of the Philippines in the last group fixtures where a win will send them into the title match.

In fact, the teams will renew their rivalries after meeting in the under-11 final last year that ended 2-1 in favour of the visiting team.

“It will be a tough match but we are very determined to come out tops this time around.

“We will go all out to play in a second final in the on-going competition,” said head coach Stanley Ian Junaidi yesterday.

Stanley explained that MMT Junior were using the same players for both the under-11 and under-12 competition this year.

“The players will be ready despite playing in two agegroup categories,” he said while adding they were forced to send the reserves in the 0-7 defeat to SBAI of Indonesia as the main players were playing on Tuesday’s under-11 final against Astam SS of Indonesia.

Meanwhile, favourites SBAI missed the chance to cement their final spot earlier after being held 0-0 by Tunku Putra and Dreaming Football 1-1 yesterday.

However, SBAI edged Dreaming Football to the top placing through superior goals difference with both teams on eight points.

Dreaming Football, like SBAI, are still undefeated in the competition also won 4-0 against SK Malawa yesterday. Other results saw Northern Inland and SK Malawa play to a 2-2 draw.

MMT Junior are currently third on seven points in the six-team standings competition, one-point behind the top two teams followed by Tunku Putra (three points), SK Malawa (two points) and Northern Inland (two points).

After the completion of the fifth round matches, the competition will continue with the classification matches and final at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) stadium today.