Indonesia tastes defeat at hands of lowly Myanmar

Indonesia tastes defeat at hands of lowly Myanmar

Eva C. Komandjaja
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After relishing victories over Russia and Chinese Taipei,
Indonesia was brought crashing down to earth against Myanmar by
losing 0-3 in the U-185 World Volleyball Championship match on
Saturday.

Starting the game confident of an easy win over Myanmar, which
was defeated 2-3 by Chinese Taipei in Friday's match, the Indonesian
players were surprised to find that the Myanmar players were
tougher than they have expected.

The local players took a 5-3 lead in the first set but the two
sides quickly drew level at 9-9, with Myanmar's top spiker, Shwe
Kyaw, continuously hammering powerful spikes at the Indonesian
blockers. Myanmar wrapped up the first set 25-18.

In the second set, the Indonesian team made two major changes
by replacing Andri Eko and Joko Mardiyanto, which left the team
weakened in defense.

Following the substitutions, Myanmar's Kyaw, who also serves
in the Myanmar Military, easily breached holes in the Indonesian
team's defense through his accurate spikes, and sealed the second
set 25-21 for Myanmar.

From the third set onward, the Myanmar players were full of
confidence and took three straight sets.

Indonesia's Robby Meliala and Aries Arizqon, whose
performances were astounding in the first two matches, were
ineffectual in the last set, which Myanmar took 19-25.

With the loss, Indonesia will have to win its last game
against Japan on Sunday to maintain any chance of winning the
competition as the team has won two and lost one of the three
matches played so far. It still has one more match to play.

Indonesian assistant coach Yunyun Yudiana said his players
were nervous playing against the Myanmar team.

"I knew our players were overconfident at first but when they
did not collect significant points in the first set, they started
to get nervous in the second set," Yunyun said.

He added that he and coach Li Qiujiang had predicted that the
Myanmar players were going to go all out in their last match
against Indonesia.

Previously, Myanmar won 3-0 against Russia and then lost 2-3
to Japan and Chinese Taipei.

"We were right in thinking that the Myanmar players would
treat this match as a do-or-die match," Yunyun said.

Yunyun said that the reason he replaced Eko and Joko was
because Eko was very nervous in the first set and was not playing
well, while Joko's right leg was injured.

"Overall, we played really badly today. Our defense was weak
and our blockers failed to stymie Myanmar's top spikers, Shwe
Kyaw and Win Min Tun.

"We also warned our players not to serve directly at Saw Hein
Thu as he is really good, but our players kept ignoring the
warnings," Yunyun said.

Meanwhile, Myanmar's head coach Nyi Nyi Lwin said that he was
extremely pleased with his team after defeating the hosts.

"Winning three sets against the hosts is unbelievable. We had
prepared our players for five sets but it turned out we could do
it in only three sets," Lwin said.

"The first set win boosted our players' moral and confidence
while the Indonesian players kept making unforced errors," Lwin
added.

"We played this match thinking that Indonesia would be the
hardest to beat, especially given that it is the host team, but
it turned out we were wrong," Lwin said.

This defeat has changed Indonesia's record against Myanmar
from 1-1 to 1-2 for Myanmar.

Indonesia lost to Myanmar in the 1995 SEA Games but got its
revenge in the 2003 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.