Matte head coach for RI soccer team
Matte head coach for RI soccer team
JAKARTA (JP): The All Indonesia Soccer Association (PSSI) has officially appointed Romano Matte as head coach for the national team bound for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
He is to take up his new duties on April 26.
The Italian coach has been formally released from private club Pelita Jaya, for which he had been coaching, PSSI chairman Azwar Anas announced after a meeting on Thursday.
In preparing the national team for the SEA Games, Matte will be assisted by Andi Teguh, who is now coaching for the East Java club, Petro Kimia Putra.
Previously Matte had coached the under-20 national team and prepared them for the under-21 Primavera competitions in Italy. He also trained players for the qualifying round of the Asia Cup here last year.
He was then hired by Nirwan Bakrie, owner of Pelita Jaya, to help boost the club's performance in the Indonesian League.
Azwar, who is also Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, said that as head coach Matte will be required to select the nation's best players for the SEA Games team. He is expected to choose from among players proposed by the 34 coaches of the clubs competing in Indonesia's soccer leagues.
Matte is scheduled to tour Indonesia to evaluate the players proposed by the clubs.
Pre-Olympic
PSSI also is considering relocating the venue of the pre- qualifying matches for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, which will pit Indonesia's junior team against South Korea and Hong Kong, from Jakarta to Surabaya.
Indonesia is scheduled to take on South Korea on May 25 and Hong Kong on May 30 at Jakarta's Senayan stadium. South Korea and Hong Kong will entertain Indonesia some time in August.
The reason for the relocation is that Surabaya supporters are well known for their fanaticism and this could be very helpful toward boosting the home team's spirit, Azwar said.
If the plan is approved, no league matches will be held at Surabaya's Gelora 10 November stadium 10 days prior to the Olympic pre-qualifying matches.
The Surabaya stadium was the venue of the 1991 pre-qualifying matches in which Indonesia fell 2-1 to Japan, drew 0-0 with Hong Kong and beat Taiwan 2-1.
The junior team has been undergoing its second year in Italy and competing in Italy's Primavera competitions. The team will be in Singapore on May 14 for several tryouts and is expected to return home on May 17. (arf)