Brawl tarnishes East Java's soccer gold

JAKARTA (JP): A brawl marked the end of the 14th National Games soccer competition, which saw East Java beat defending champion Irian Jaya 2-1 yesterday.

Such a violation of sportsmanship was incited by officials of the losing team, who protested over what they claimed was bad refereeing made by I Made Sudra of Bali for letting East Java escape a penalty after a handball in its box.

The pack of angry officials beat Sudra and hurled anything they could find at the lanky referee. Security officers moved into the fray to save Sudra, but there was still room for the unsympathetic Irian Jaya team's chief of the contingent Yap Salossa to throw his shoes at the referee's body.

"He was unfair! The East Java player did touch the ball in the penalty box. We should have deserved a penalty," Salossa screamed.

"We played without Aples Tecuari just to obey the rules. But take a look at East Java. They always just think of winning, no matter what ways they use," he yelled.

Salossa was referring to East Java's late inclusion of Anang Maruf and Eri Irianto, who returned from their international duty in the Tiger Cup in Singapore, which concluded on Sunday.

The Indonesian soccer body had said earlier that each provincial team was not allowed to request the services of its national player who had been called to play in the Tiger Cup.

To make matters worse, the Irian team refused to climb to the podium for a medal presentation.

Chairman of the national soccer body Azwar Anas and State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman, who both watched the match, regretted the incident, saying it was a shame that a soccer official did it.

Azwar officially closed the Games in his capacity as the coordinating minister for people's welfare.

Eri put his team 1-0 ahead from the penalty spot six minutes from the interval, after East Java forward Reinold Piters was brought down by substitute Eduard Isir in the box.

East Java quickly steered the match after the morale boosting goal. A number of up-front sorties built up by the East Javanese were all that highlighted the play, with six minutes left in the first half, but none was converted into a goal.

Playing before a fanatic crowd of over 50,000, the green force East Java stepped up the pressure in the second half. The lack of composure, however, cost the team at least six goal-scoring chances.

Irian Jaya, fielding a team heavy on young players, opted a more defensive stance and relied much on the counter attacks.

The equalizer came at last in the 71st minute, when an advancing Ferdinandus Wabia finished a through pass from Albert Yom with a right-footer from a close range.

An apparently buoyant Irian side, however, cut short its celebrations. Just one minute after the thunderous equalizer, Piters slammed in the winner following a bottom-up attack inspired by Anang.

Fadjar Siahaan, chairman of the East Java soccer body, defended his decision to bring his national players here, saying that both Anang and Eri are below the age of 23, which was in line with the rules set up by the organizing committee.

"We featured them because we wanted to perform a good soccer match," he said.

Irian Jaya's coach Festus Yom blamed the lack of preparations on his team's defeat. "We only had less than a year to prepare ourselves for the Games. If only we had a year more, it would be a different story," he said.

German technical director of the national team, Bernhard Schumm, said that East Java was technically and tactically the best among the participating soccer teams of the Games. (yan)

Medal tally

G S B Jakarta 141 84 79 West Java 71 85 91 East Java 65 83 79 Central Java 32 42 71 Lampung 20 20 34 Irian Jaya 17 17 16 Jambi 16 14 11 North Sulawesi 14 17 23 East Kalimantan 14 13 22 South Kalimantan 13 10 8 South Sulawesi 12 21 24 North Sumatra 12 13 15 Yogyakarta 11 12 23 Central Kalimantan 11 12 13 South East Sulawesi 11 4 9 Bali 9 14 21 Riau 9 6 9 West Kalimantan 6 5 5 South Sumatra 5 7 10 West Sumatra 4 11 16 Maluku 4 6 18 East Nusa Tenggara 4 2 4 West Nusa Tenggara 2 3 3 Aceh 2 2 9 Central Sulawesi 2 2 6 East Timor 2 0 11 Bengkulu 1 4 7