Semifinalists vow to fight to end
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Persija, Persebaya, PSM and PSMS, are bracing themselves for tough games in their Indonesian League semifinals here at the Bung Karno Stadium on Thursday, with their eyes set on the Sunday's final.
The 1999 runner-up, Persebaya, will take to the ground without its key player Agung Setiabudi, who was suspended after collecting two bookable offenses in their quarterfinal trip to Medan.
However, Rudy Keltjes, the team's coach, said that he would be able to cover the area by an equally good substitute in Hartono.
"It's no problem. I'm not the sort of a man who cries over a player being unable to don his boots," Rudy told reporters after a technical meeting at the office of the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) on Wednesday.
Agung, who used to be a regular national team member, plays a key role in the team, his speedy sweep from the flank frequently posing danger to opponents.
Rudy said he would not be preoccupied with a man-to-man marking strategy, in response to questions whether he had ordered one of his players to keep close to Persija's international striker Bambang Pamungkas.
"We will not play such a strategy. Suppose Bambang is marked but the others are not, that's nonsense," he said, adding that the other team members were ready for the fight.
The organizers will distribute as many as 72,000 tickets, far below the stadium's capacity of 100,000, which they said should allow for "leakage".
Persija is looking to avoid its bitter experience last season, in which, despite its star-studded team, it stopped short of reaching the peak.
Qualifying for the semifinals as group winner, Persija may be in a high-flying mood to carry on with the job it started in Makassar, where it took the big scalp of PSM in the process.
Although there is uncertainty about striker Widodo C. Putro and midfielder Khair Rifo due to injuries, the team said that would pose few problems.
"Without Widodo, we still have three good players in front. We also have a good cover for Rifo," Ahmadi Ahmad, the team's manager, said.
PSM Makassar is looking to become the first team to win a back-to-back championship.
"We may finish as runners-up in the Western Group matches, but we are by no means second to PSMS, not to any other teams," Kadir Halid, the team's manager, said.
"And we are going out with a mind-set that we must win the trophy twice consecutively," he said.
The team wants to prove that its victory at the Ho Chi Minh Cup last month was not a fluke. It is also eager to prove that its defeat to Persija at their home ground was a mere slip-up.
PSMS, meanwhile, refused to be overawed by its foe, with coach Suimin Sudirja saying that although the majority of his proteges had no experience of playing on the Senayan turf, they were poised to deliver their typically bold performance.
Suimin called it a day. "This time around it is our turn (to emerge as champions)," he said.
He recalled the mid-1980s, during which PSMS ruled the roost in a league that played according to an old format.
Since the inception of the new format in 1994, PSMS has progressed no further than the semifinals.