Kurniawan may not be included

Kurniawan may not be included

GRESIK, East Java (JP): The All-Indonesia Football Federation
(PSSI) must not bow to the will of the public or soccer fans in
selecting players for the 18th Southeast Asian Games in Chiang
Mai, Thailand, Dec. 9 to Dec. 17.

"I am not personally against Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto. But
including him in our SEA Games-bound national team would be
psychologically detrimental to the team's unity," said Bob Hippy,
who heads PSSI's technical and training department.

Striker Kurniawan is the star of the recently dissolved
national junior soccer team, known as PSSI Primavera I. After the
team's two-year stints in Italy with soccer giant Sampdoria, he
is now playing for FC Lucerne of Switzerland. If he is to join
PSSI's centralized training program in Gresik, he will only be
able to do so after Nov. 26.

"Just imagine how you would feel if an outsider who never
joins or trains with your team suddenly and so easily enters into
the team, while you yourself are chosen to be part of the team
only after a long struggle from division two to division one in
the Indonesian League," Hippy said yesterday

Team

It is true that Kurniawan may have better skills and
experience due to his stints in Italy, but "we are preparing a
team, not individuals," he said.

Technically speaking, such an inclusion would also destroy the
cohesiveness of the team. Connecting Kurniawan's playing style
with the team's style is not as easy as connecting two cables,"
he added.

"The same is also true of the inclusion of the other PSSI
Primavera I members. Don't simply include them in our SEA Games-
bound team. How would their inclusion affect the team as a whole
must be deeply examined. Don't decide with feet, use the brain,"
Hippy said.

Hippy also criticized PSSI's poor statistical documentation of
its junior booters, which makes it difficult for his department
to assess the ability of individual booters.

"It's our ignorance. We never monitor how many have gotten red
cards, yellow cards and what violations they've committed and how
serious. We also have to record their performances, how many
goals they made and so on...," he said.

"Without those statistics, we have no solid basis to select
players. And if the selected players prove disappointing, no one
can be held responsible," he added.

According to Andi Teguh, who assisted head coach Romano Matte
with the country's SEA Games-bound team, PSSI evaluates the
booters' performances visually. "Hippy's suggestion is a good
idea. But I think we can start applying it at the next
centralized training program," Andi told The Jakarta Post.

PSSI's chairman Azwar Anas acknowledged that although PSSI
maintains performance records of its Indonesian League players,
it does not have equivalent records for its junior league
players.

But Azwar told the Post that selecting players without
reference to such statistical data also suffices. Public opinion
is a good tool to select players. Its accuracy is about 90
percent as has been proven while selecting which players from
which Indonesian League teams should be included in the SEA Games
bound team. If 80 people out of 100 say that A is good, than he
is good, Azwar said. (arf).