Lebanon seeks another upset in RI tie<\/p>\n
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Lebanon U-23 soccer team looks eager to repeat its surprise
\nelimination of Jordan when it takes on Indonesia in the second
\nround of the 2004 Olympics qualifying matches here on Saturday.<\/p>\n
"We are very upbeat after the victory over Jordan. We
\nsurprised many people in Lebanon and also in Jordan," French
\ncoach Richard Tardi said at a media briefing held upon the team's
\narrival at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Lebanon held Jordan to a 1-1 draw in Amman on April 19, and
\nmade it to the second round on the away goal rule, after the
\nfirst leg match in Beirut ended in a 0-0 draw.<\/p>\n
Tardi hinted that the Jordanian upset should provide a boost
\nto his team, of which the majority are young players.<\/p>\n
Asked about an optional gamesmanship, in which they would
\nsimply look for a draw here and try to capitalize on their host's
\nstatus in the return match within a month, Tardi said, "We play
\ntwo games, and we must qualify after two games. We'll try to take
\nthe best result."<\/p>\n
The Lebanese team arrived with 19 players, including Abbas
\nAtwi, their scorer in the tie with Jordan. Prior to leaving for
\nIndonesia, said Tardi, the team had been in three friendly games,
\nwinning twice in Qatar and losing in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Indonesian team members, according assistant
\ncoach Bambang Nurdiansyah, were likely to opt for fast moves to
\nchallenge the tall Lebanese,<\/p>\n
Beirut's second-leg match is to be played on June 6, and the
\nIndonesia-Lebanon tie is one of the 12 fixtures in the Asian
\nqualifiers, with the winners due to advance to the final stage
\nbetween March and early May in 2004.<\/p>\n
While the majority of pairings will play their matches on
\neither May 1 or May 3, three pairings will have to wait for the
\nresults from first-round matches that have been rescheduled due
\nto the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.<\/p>\n
The rescheduled matches are: Hong Kong-Sri Lanka, Chinese
\nTaipei-Singapore and Iraq-Vietnam. All three will be played on
\nSept. 10, according to footballasia.com.<\/p>",
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