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)