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).