RI booters to play with China
RI booters to play with China
JAKARTA (JP): National soccer players will take some valuable lessons in Beijing on Wednesday in the run-up to their campaign at the 18th Southeast Asian Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Secretary-general of the national team committee, Endro Sumardjo, told reporters on Wednesday night that the Chinese Football Association had confirmed that its Olympic team would entertain the Indonesians in a friendly match. It is not clear where the match will take place.
"It's good to play a team as strong as China. They will show us what our weaknesses are during the match," Endro said.
The match will be the first out of three warm-up matches against foreign teams proposed by the All-Indonesia Football Association before the SEA Games in December.
China is one of eight Asian teams which will be vying for two berths to the 1996 Olympic Games soccer competition. Indonesia, represented by its junior players who have just finished their two-year stint in Italy, crashed out of first round of the Olympic qualifying stage.
Endro said that the national SEA Games team will bring all its 20 players to China. The squad includes six Italian trainees who also failed in the Olympic qualifying round.
The national soccer body sprang some surprises when it announced the team line-up on Sunday, dropping premier league top scorer Peri Sandria and two of three players from the league champion team Persib Bandung. Persib's fast-running winger Kekey Zakaria was among those dropped.
Defender Yadi Mulyadi is the only Persib player left on the list. The soccer body will have to axe two more players by Nov. 15 as required by the SEA Games Organizing Committee.
Yadi will rejoin the team on Monday after helping his side reach the Asia Club Championship quarterfinals over the weekend. Persib beat Pasay City 3-1 in Manila, the Philippines, for a 5-2 aggregate win.
Persib is now traveling to Brunei for two friendly matches. It held the Brunei SEA Games team 1-1 on Wednesday and will meet the same side again tomorrow.
The Bandung team will miss Yadi in the Asia Club quarterfinals, scheduled to take place from Nov. 26 to Nov. 30. The Asian Football Confederation has yet to announce the venue for the quarterfinals.
Romano Matte's men won all their four warm-up matches in East Java and East Kalimantan. They will shortly move their home base from Gresik, East Java, to Sukabumi, West Java to acclimatize themselves to the cool weather expected in Chiang Mai during the Games. (amd)