Indonesia has modest goal at junior volley meet

Indonesia has modest goal at junior volley meet

Musthofid
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

With Thailand expected to remain top dog, Indonesia will be
looking for a modest goal when it hosts the upcoming Southeast
Asian (SEA) Junior Men's Volleyball Championship in Jakarta next
month.

The biennial volleyball event will run from June 16 to 20 and
features teams from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.

The teams will play a round-robin competition. The pairings
show that Indonesia will begin against Singapore, while Thailand
is its final opponent.

"We are determined to beat the other three opponents before
taking on Thailand in the final match on the closing day,"
Indonesian team's coach Syamsul Jais told a press conference here
on Tuesday.

"Against Thailand, we will be trying to match them. But, it
does not mean the odds are staked completely against us. We do
have a chance to beat them and what we'll do is try to exploit
even a slim advantage to our favor," he said.

Thailand has dominated the tournament. Last time round,
Indonesia had to be content with fourth place.

Indonesia is currently grooming 18 junior players, whose
average age is 18 years old, at the Sentul Volleyball Training
Center in Bogor, West Java.

The team, under the coaching duo of Syamsul and Australian
Andrew Strugnell, was fielded in the recent Proliga professional
volleyball league, in which it was pitted against its seniors.

Syamsul, who is a former national star, said that after having
been trained by Strugnell, whose training method was aimed at
rebuilding solid teamwork, the team looked more confident.

Syamsul, whose last appearance as a player was at the 1998
Asian Games in Bangkok, also hinted at a change of play by his
squad, saying the team would be instructed to be more guarded
against open attack.

"During their matches at Proliga, they were too open in their
play. That backfired," he said.