RI books berth in Asian Cup finals
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian soccer team cruised into the Asian Cup final in Lebanon in November 2000 with a crushing 9-2 defeat of Cambodia in their Group 7 prequalification match at Senayan soccer stadium on Sunday.
Indonesia's star striker Rocky Puttiray kicked off the goal deluge by scoring two minutes after referee Krishnan Manoharan blew the opening whistle. The 29-year-old Ambon native scored another goal in the 38th minute to seal Indonesia's victory.
Rocky scored a total of seven goals in the prequalifying round.
Teammates Eko Purjianto, Imran Nahumarury, Uston Nawawi and Widodo Cahyono Putro added one goal each in the 15th, 33rd, 40th and 80th minutes respectively. The youngest member of the team, Bambang Pamungkas, 19, contributed two goals in the 53rd and 62nd minutes.
Veteran Cambodian striker Hok Sochetra scored two goals to help his team retain some pride. Hok was awarded a penalty shot in the 13th minute after Indonesian defender Nur'alim tackled the Cambodian in the penalty box. Nur'alim also received a yellow card for the ill-advised tackle.
Hok produced his second goal in the 54th minute.
Cambodia coach Joachim Fickert of Germany blamed his team's failure on its lack of experience.
"My players were not playing with their heads, compared to the Indonesian team. The biggest difficulty is that our players are not yet able to anticipate the critical situation when they are under pressure. They made too many individual mistakes," Ficker said.
Indonesia coach Nandar Iskandar was pleased to accomplish his task of leading Indonesia to the Asian Cup final.
"We already knew the Cambodian players' skills were below ours. Now the national team has qualified for the Asian Cup final and I hand over the responsibility of training the team to the Soccer Association of Indonesia," he said.
Nandar singled out the performance of the red-and-white-haired Rocky for compliment.
"I have a good word for Rocky: he is our number one striker," he said.
During the postgame media conference, Rocky thanked God for his performance.
"This is a blessing from God. I might have finally matured this year. When I was a member of the 1999 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games team, I hardly got a chance to perform and to improve my skills. I'm not saying bad things about (SEA Games coach) Bernard Schumm, but Pak Nandar has given me and the other players the opportunity to improve our technical skills," he said.
Rocky said he was ready to sign a deal with either Home United or Tampines of Singapore.
"I'm waiting for a letter of recommendation from Persija (where Rocky currently plays). Home United will give me a tryout in December, and is now waiting for the letter from Persija," he said. (ivy)
Standings: (games, wins, draws, losses, points, average points) Indonesia (4 games, 3 wins, 1 draws, 0 losses, 18-5 points, 10 average points); Hong Kong (4 games, 2 wins, 1 draws, 1 losses, 7-5 points, 7 average points); Cambodia (4 games, -, -, 4 losses, 4-19 points, 4 average points).