KUALA LUMPUR: KL City are counting on two foreigners, who are in the midst of acquiring Malaysian citizenship, to power them to glory at Asian level.
Paulo Josue, the Brazilian and Romel Morales, the Colombian have indeed done much for KL City, inspiring them to the Malaysia Cup title last season and with it, a place in the AFC Cup.
And the duo, especially Josue who leads the AFC Cup scoring chart with five goals, continued to carry KL City as they swept aside Vietnam's Viettel, Indonesia's PSM Makassar and ATK Mohun Bagan of India.
An appreciative Kuala Lumpur FA, in return, are helping the duo apply for Malaysian citizenship as naturalised players. Josue and Morales will become eligible after completing their five-year stay in Malaysia.
And naturally the mood in the KL camp is great as the City Boys prepare for the AFC Cup Inter-Zone final against PFC Sogdiana in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan, tomorrow.
Making their debut in the Asian-level competition, the City Boys have created history by marching to the Inter-Zone final.
KL coach Bojan Hodak said his men are not feeling any pressure as they have already punched above their weight in getting this far.
Hodak felt that the pressure should be on the Sogdiana team as they have been winless in four matches in the Uzbekistan Super League.
However, he said his team must watch out for Sogdiana midfielder Jasur Khasanov and striker Shokhruz Norkhonov who had scored four goals each in the competition.
"We never thought we would be playing at this stage of the competition. Now, the players are motivated to go all the way and create history.
"We are confident of getting a positive result from this match."
Hodak said as Sogdiana will surely try to shackle Josue and Morales, he expects the others in the KL team to help upfront.
"We know they will try to stop Josue who has been fantastic in the AFC Cup, but we have other players who can do well. J. Partiban is there and we have Haqimi (Azim Rosli), Hadin (Azman), Zhafri (Yahya) and Jordan Mintah who could be goal threats," he said.
The KL defence, manned by Kamal Azizi Mohd Zabri, Giancarlo Gallifuoco, Declan Lambert, Irfan Zakaria, look solid, having conceded only two goals in their last five matches.
While the City Boys hope to put up a fiery performance in Jizzakh, they will have to adapt to the chilly weather and low humidity in Central Asia.
If KL City beat Sogdiana, they will meet the winners of the West Asia zone tie between Al-Seeb of Oman and Bahrain's Al-Riffa in the AFC Cup final on Oct 22.