Indonesia crashes out of Olympic soccer campaign
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Under-23 soccer team has crashed out of contention for the 2004 Olympics after an embarrassing 5-1 defeat by Lebanon in Beirut on Saturday.
Indonesia coach Mundari Karya immediately pinned the blame on his players mentality and judgment, and poor preparations.
"We apologize to the Indonesia soccer community. We tried to give the best we could, but the opponents proved too smart," Mundari said as quoted by Antara.
The Lebanese went ahead less than a minute after kickoff. Indonesia drew level in the 15th minute thanks to Syamsul Bachri only to watch Khodr Salame complete a hat trick with goals in the 39th, 46th and 56th minutes.
The hosts completed their scoring three minutes from time, handing Indonesia a 5-2 aggregate defeat after Indonesian won the opening match in Jakarta 1-0.
Mundari said Indonesia had learned a valuable lesson from the defeat.
"When we suffered the quick first goal our players were not affected given they leveled 15 minutes later. But, when our efforts for more goals were frustrated by offside infractions the players dropped their concentration," he said.
Mundari paid respect to Lebanon, saying the team, which had prepared for five months and was boosted by its home supporters, played well.
He said that lack in preparation and games against good teams had contributed to his team's poor mentality as his players had little tournament experience.
He called for a thorough evaluation of the team before it heads to Vietnam for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in December.
The team left for Beirut after an alarming 0-4 loss to Malaysia in a friendly in Jakarta.
The win puts Lebanon in the final stage of the Asian selection competition, which will feature 12 teams divided into three groups. Only group winners qualify for the 2004 Olympics in Greece.
Japan, Bahrain and Malaysia have already secured their final berths.
Malaysia has qualified for the 12-strong final without kicking the ball after Turkmenistan refused to play the first-leg match in Kuala Lumpur last month, citing fears of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).