Indonesian water polo squad outplays Vietnam at SEA Games

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian water polo squad, which has arrived in Vietnam with a modest target of winning a bronze medal, outplayed their hosts 10-6 in the opening match of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at the National Aquatic Sports Complex in Hanoi on Monday.

Although the home squad had hundreds of spectators supporting them, the Indonesians appeared to be unperturbed to run to a convincing 10-4 lead, according to Antara.

Vietnam added two goals but it was all it could do as Indonesia held on to a 10-6 victory.

Assistant coach, Peris, said that he was quite satisfied with the team's performance considering that 90 percent of the Indonesian players were newcomers who were lacking experience in international events.

"For a team consisting of newcomers, I see the win over Vietnam as a good achievement, considering almost all of the players are not originally water polo athletes," he said.

Peris said that the good achievement had so far been the fruit of their hard work in training, which included 16 day of overseas workouts in Malaysia and Singapore under the supervision of head coach Paul Nicolescu from Romania.

"However, we were clueless about the Vietnamese strengths because we have never met the team before," he said.

According to Peris, in order to reach the bronze target, Indonesia needs at least three wins in the round robin competition.

Seven countries take part in the water polo: Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and defending champion Singapore.

On Tuesday, Indonesia is scheduled to face Malaysia which is expected to give less than test than Vietnam.

Peris was optimistic that Indonesia could overcome Malaysia on their way to a medal.

"During the overseas workouts, Indonesia won all seven matches with Malaysia. We expect to repeat the winning performance over Malaysia," he said.

In other matches, Thailand defeated Malaysia 7-6, while defending champion Singapore nipped the Philippines 7-6.