National soccer team to play last warm-up
National soccer team to play last warm-up
JAKARTA (JP): To iron out the last wrinkles in its way to the 18th Southeast Asian Games soccer throne, the national team will test its skills today against the Indonesian league selection, at the Senayan stadium.
The league selection will include nine import booters, who are preparing for the new season which kicks off today in Surabaya, East Java.
Andy Soemadipraja, marketing manager of the Indonesian League, said that for this evening match, tickets will be for sale. "To pay the fees of Liga Selection's import booters," he added.
The SEA Games's soccer competition will start on Dec. 4 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
As the day draws near, the national team has found itself, almost simultaneously, jogging from one tryout to another.
Early this month, on Nov. 8, the team went to Beijing, China, for a tryout against China's Olympic Games team, to which it fell 2-3.
Shortly after that it sought another tryout with South Korea. But South Korea was not ready and the national team had to cancel the match on Nov. 15.
Three days later, the team's skills were put to test in a very unfriendly friendly against PSIS Semarang, in which the team's 2- 0 victory was hailed with a rain of bottles and jeers.
Unsatisfied, the team sought another test battle against All Star in Manado, North Sulawesi, just four days after the match in Semarang, Central Java.
The team nailed a 2-0 win over the host, which was heavily fortified with import booters, in front of EA Mangindaan, the founder of the All Indonesian Soccer Federation, whose birthday was honored with the friendly.
Meanwhile, in another part of SEA Games preparation, the Indonesian Weightlifting Association is completing the training session for 19 men's and women's lifters who will represent Indonesia in Chiang Mai.
Madek Kasman, coordinator of the training center, expressed his guarded optimism that his athletes would bring home eight gold medals.
"We expect gold medals from lighter weights at which our athletes excel," he said. All of the Indonesian lifters are projected to win at least a silver medal. (arf)