RI ready to beat Vietnam in Tiger Cup
RI ready to beat Vietnam in Tiger Cup
JAKARTA (Agencies): Acting national team coach Dananjaya was steadfast on Wednesday that Indonesia could beat Vietnam's strong team for a final berth.
"All the players have the same vision to win. They are mentally prepared for the semifinals and will do anything to win," he said, adding that the dismissal of coach Nandar Iskandar did not affect the team's preparations.
Indonesia has a chance to take revenge on Vietnam in Thursday's semifinal match in Bangkok. Vietnam routed Indonesia 1-0 into the 1999 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games semifinals and at the same time buried Indonesia's dream of taking the soccer gold medal for the first time in eight years.
Dananjaya assured that last year's defeat by Vietnam would not affect his team's performance.
"The players can observe which teams had made progress in the past few months. Moreover, the team's match experiences in the Asian Cup final in Lebanon are enough to boost their motivation to cruise to the finals."
Dananjaya will still rely on the duet strikers of Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto and Gendut Doni Christiawan.
"I may consider to field Miro Baldo Bento in the second half. In the last performance, Bento was quite successful in making our opponent's defenders busy."
Dananjaya said he would be careful in picking the midfielders, adding that he would try to block the Vietnamese in the center field and deter them from breaking into the defense zone.
"There will be additional attackers to play in the midfield, including Imran Nahumarury, Uston Nawawi and Putu Gede Santoso. We want to play offensive soccer," he said.
In the defense zone, Dananjaya will field regular players Aji Santoso and Ismet Sofyan as stoppers. Eko Purjianto or Jet Donald Laala are the options to accompany Aji and Ismet. Should Hendro Kartiko recover from his injury, he will be the first choice as goalkeeper.
Team manager Muhammad Zein said he would take responsibility over the team's performances, including Nandar's dismissal.
"Our main target is the final. I saw that we could play better against Myanmar, when Nandar was no longer there. We want to better our achievement in the 1998 Cup. If the team fails, I'm willing to withdraw as team manager and national team director at the Soccer Association of Indonesia," he said.
Indonesia crashed out in the preliminaries in Hanoi two years ago.
Optimistic
In Bangkok, Thailand manager Virath Chanpanich is confident his team can overcome Malaysia to book a Tiger Cup final spot.
With the exception of striker Worrawut Srimaka, who earned a red card and a one-match ban in Thailand's victory over the Philippines on Sunday, the Thais will have their full lineup available for the semifinal here, Virath said on Tuesday.
"We will not have Worrawut because of the red card, but other than that we have a full team and we are ready to fight against Malaysia."
"We have prepared well as a team and as a host nation we should get through to the final. We hope we will be the champs."
Virath said he was keen to see the outcome of the other semifinal, where Indonesia meets Vietnam.
"If we face Indonesia in the final it will be easy because they lost to us 1-4 in the first round, but if we face Vietnam it will be an interesting match because their team is very strong and well-trained," he told AFP.
Vietnam thrashed Laos 5-0 to reach the semis, while Malaysia upset defending champion Singapore 1-0 to book its berth.
Vietnam coach Alfred Reidl said on Monday that the side had achieved its objective of finishing as champion of the Group B round, played in the southern Thai city of Songkhla.
"We wanted to avoid meeting Thailand in the semifinals and we have done that. Against Laos we did not play so well but we did score sufficient goals to top the group," he said. (ivy)