Indonesia faces tough odds against Singapore

Indonesia faces tough odds against Singapore

Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press, Singapore

Peter Withe has beaten long odds before.

At the 1998 Asian Games, the former England and Aston Villa striker coached a nine-man Thailand to an extra time victory in the quarter finals against heavily favored South Korea.

Now coaching Indonesia, he and his team will need the same power of self-belief if they hope to prevail over Singapore in Sunday's return leg of the Tiger Cup final after a 3-1 defeat at home.

"You influence yourself in life and you influence yourself when you play football, and its not influenced by other people," Withe told reporters on Saturday.

A strong believer in the psychological aspect of sport, Withe said he's been working hard to restore confidence to the Indonesians, who went down 3-0 before more than 100,000 fans in Jakarta last Sunday before winning a goal back just before the final whistle.

"I try to get into the minds of people to try to get them to play and have a positive attitude," said Withe, a past Tiger Cup winner at the helm of three-time champion Thailand.

"I've been working on that since the last game finished."

Further complicating matters for Withe, star player Boas Salossa remains in doubt for the final after suffering an ankle injury in the first leg. Withe said a decision about whether or not to play Salossa would wait until the last minute.

The final has drawn unprecedented attention in Singapore, whose soccer program had been in a prolonged winless funk until the appointment of Serbian-born coach Radojko Avramovic in 2003.

All 55,000 tickets for the game have sold out and the Lions' have been front page news for days.

"No one could have envisaged such an outcome, save for the Lions themselves, a team imbued with self-belief, confidence and tenacity," said the Football Weekly tabloid. The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) at National Stadium.

Singapore last won the competition in 1998 in Vietnam, while Indonesia has finished runner-up to Thailand the past two tournaments.

Singapore captain Aide Iskandar said he team was ready for a repeat win.

"The players have matured. They've grown in confidence from game to game," he said. "They're ready to go."

Avramovic said he had counseled his players on handling the attention, but reminded them that was a result of "all they've earned on the field, and if they give 100 percent, it will happen again."

"I don't think the pressure is on us - we're two goals up - the pressure is on Indonesia," said the coach, better known as "Rammy."