Young booters need longer training stint abroad<\/p>\n
By Arif Suryobuwono<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): One year of strenuous training stint won't be
\nenough for young booters to turn themselves to top players even
\nthough they took the lesson the hard way in Italy, one of the
\nworld powerhouses in soccer.<\/p>\n
At the ongoing 29th Asian Under-19 soccer championship at
\nSenayan, they only managed to hold Qatar to a 1-1 draw during the
\nfirst round, and fell victim to the marauding Syrians with 0-4
\ndefeat in the second. In the do or die battle against Iraq,
\nIndonesia had to swallow another bitter pill when they drew 0-0
\ndespite several goal chances in the decisive match.<\/p>\n
The national junior team, who have begun to attract the
\nattention of many school girls, was finally ousted from the
\nsemis.<\/p>\n
Actually, in what way did the training, which is part of an
\nambitious US$1.2 million project aimed at preparing the team to
\nenter the year 2002's World Cup finals, differ from the one
\nadministered on home's soil?<\/p>\n
The answer is, of course, not Italian language, although the
\nteenager players said they understood well all Italian
\ninstructions given by their coach Romano Matte who is also vice
\npresident of Sampdoria, one of the world's soccer giants.<\/p>\n
The team's star, Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto, the first Indonesian
\nplayer to have been picked up by Sampdoria to train together with
\nItalian stars such as Ruud Gullit and Attilo Lombardo, summed up
\nthe one-year stint in two-words: \"teamwork organization\".<\/p>\n
\"How to develop a well-organized team; that's what's new to
\nus,\" said midfielder Ismayana Arsyad when asked the same
\nquestion.<\/p>\n
\"Performing an organized defense and attack are the kind of
\ntraining that we didn't get on home's soil,\" said another
\nmidfielder, Bima Sakti Tukiman, who is 18 year old.<\/p>\n
Seventeen-year-old Kurniawan told The Jakarta Post that he was
\npreviously not aware of the importance of teamwork organization.<\/p>\n
\"I used to play instinctively and rely only on my feeling when
\nit comes to attack and when to defend,\" Kurniawan said, \"But now
\nI know that's professionally not correct. Instead of
\nconcentrating only on your own individual moves, you must focus
\non harmonizing the other members' with yours.\"<\/p>\n
Kurniawan said training not only developed his individual
\ntechniques significantly, but also taught him to discipline
\nhimself and to be always on time for training.<\/p>\n
\"I learned that there are schemes and patterns of playing
\nsoccer,\" Ismayana said, \"And the task of every team member is to
\nfit themselves into a certain attack or defensive pattern which
\nwill most benefit your team on a given situation,\" he added.<\/p>\n
According to Ismayana, there are similarities between playing
\nsoccer and playing chess. \"If you're attacked from the right
\nflank, for instance, there are best patterns to counter it. You
\nhave to learn and practice repeatedly how to quickly form those
\nbest patterns whenever you encounter such attack.\"<\/p>\n
National coach Danurwindo, who was also with the team during
\ntheir stay in Italy, told The Post it was during the training in
\nItaly that the team learned how to play soccer correctly.<\/p>\n
This means, Danurwindo stressed, that playing soccer is
\ncollective and hence, each player must always bear in mind that
\ntheir team is not Kurniawan's nor another striker's but a
\ncollection of eleven players.<\/p>\n
Discipline<\/p>\n
Goalie Kurnia Sandy, when asked what he didn't receive from
\ntrainings on home's soil, said he can now better and more
\ntactfully decide whether to take the ball or not, when and how.<\/p>\n
Sandy, who is the team's tallest player, said he also learned
\na sort of acrobatics: how to aptly and swiftly adjust to the
\ncourse of the ball and anticipate its next course.<\/p>\n
Another important thing learned in Italy, according 19-year-
\nold Sandy, was discipline. \"Here in Indonesia, you can ignore
\ndiscipline. You can play at will, or simply walk if you feel
\ntired after making an attack, and no one will make a hell about
\nit,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sandy, who was also Kurniawan's room-mate, added that their
\nmatches with Italian clubs were filmed that they can study their
\nmistakes in slow-motion.<\/p>\n
Kurniawan said they trained six days a week in Italy. On
\nMondays and Tuesdays they trained for one and a half hour, on
\nThursdays and Fridays for two hours. On Wednesdays and Saturdays
\nthey joined the junior Italian premier league's competitions.<\/p>\n
During the one-year stint, Ismayana said, they played 22
\ntimes. \"We lost 4-1 in the first round and 3-1 in the second
\nround against Sampdoria's junior team in the junior premier
\nleague,\" Ismayana said, \"but in a try-out match against Juventus
\njunior, we managed a draw.\" Sandy added that during the one-year
\nstint they made four suicidal goals.<\/p>\n
Kurniawan, Bima Sakti, Ismayana and Sandy are among 20 players
\nsent to Italy by the All-Indonesian Football Association in July
\nlast year after being selected three months before.<\/p>\n
According to Ismayana, they were selected out of 41, who were
\nthen shortlisted into 27 and eventually into 20.<\/p>\n
The selection tests included their individual techniques, IQ
\ntest and health tests, 18-year-old Ismayana said.<\/p>\n
However, being trained together for one-year does not
\nguarantee that they can communicate well with each other.<\/p>\n
The four told the Post that miscommunication while they were
\nplaying often hamper their solidity as a team.<\/p>\n
\"We still erroneously understand each other, or mistakenly
\ninterpret each other's move,\" Sandy said.<\/p>\n
\"Hence, we must talk much and explain,\" Kurniawan said.<\/p>\n
Kurniawan, Bima Sakti, Ismayana and Sandy are now on their top
\nform. They all said they would play soccer as long as they could
\nbut not all of them have ideas about their future.<\/p>\n
Bima Sakti and Sandy said they had no idea what to do if the
\ntime comes where they no longer can play football. But Sandy who
\nalready has a girl-friend, said that although marriage is still a
\nlong way off, \"I will marry, for sure.\"<\/p>\n
Kurniawan said if one day he could no longer work as a soccer
\nplayer, he wish he could become a businessman who cares for the
\ndevelopment of Indonesian football.<\/p>\n
Ismayana said he might consider a job in a private company
\nshould he reached a nadir of his football career.<\/p>\n
Pondering the future can make man wise. But they might have to
\nsoon forget all this because the team is scheduled to return to
\nItaly next month, chairman of the All-Indonesian Football
\nAssociation Azwar Anas told reporters after the team was ousted
\nfrom semis, to participate in another competition in the junior
\nItalian premier league.<\/p>\n
The girls will just have to wait.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/young-booters-need-longer-training-stint-abroad-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }