Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Pictures: Courtesy of FABD
THE national under-23 football team (Tabuan Muda) are eager to get in on the action at the AFF U-23 Youth Championship in Cambodia.
It has been more than two years without international competition for Brunei as they are drawn in Group A with Cambodia, Timor Leste and the Philippines at the February 14-26 tournament.
Brunei skipper Wafi Aminuddin has mixed feelings for their first post-COVID outing.
"I'm very excited to play and a bit nervous at the same time especially after not playing international matches for more than two years," said Wafi in an interview with Brusports News.
"To be honest, i don’t know what to expect. Not playing any competitive matches for about six months and not being able to train full team and play games to abide the SOP.
"However, the players trained hard and did their best to be match fit. I hope we can achieve something to make our country proud," added the DPMM FC player.
Tabuan Muda vice-captain and his DPMM FC teammate Muhammad Nur Asyraffahmi Nursamri shared the same sentiments.
"I feel very excited and ready to once again represent Brunei. I'm sure all the players are also ready and very hungry for action as well since it has been months without competitive football here," said Asyraf.
"I hope we can achieve some points as that is our main target and to show Bruneians that we are capable of doing it. We will need to be 100% ready," he added.
When asked about training, he replied: "Training has been fantastic since the first day we started. All the coaching staff and players showed great effort and energy throughout the training sessions.
"Before we started our physical training, our fitness coach also gave us some program to do for us to stay fit," he continued.
Another DPMM FC player, forward Hakeme Said is ready to give it his all.
"First of all, l’m happy to be back on tournament and obviously this first international tournament post COVID will be different from the past tournament," said Hakeme.
"I’m 100% ready for the competition. Training so far so good, we still can do some high intensity training with other players while we have to follow the SOP," he added.
Kota Ranger's Muhammad Nazif Safwan Zaini touched on the difficulties in getting ready.
"It is a bit of a struggle because it was mainly virtual training but i am ready. I will do the best for the team," said Nazif.
"I'm a little bit nervous because of covid but also excited to be representing Brunei. Hopefully we can get some points from the tournament," he concluded.
