Young booters need longer training stint abroad

Young booters need longer training stint abroad

By Arif Suryobuwono

JAKARTA (JP): One year of strenuous training stint won't be
enough for young booters to turn themselves to top players even
though they took the lesson the hard way in Italy, one of the
world powerhouses in soccer.

At the ongoing 29th Asian Under-19 soccer championship at
Senayan, they only managed to hold Qatar to a 1-1 draw during the
first round, and fell victim to the marauding Syrians with 0-4
defeat in the second. In the do or die battle against Iraq,
Indonesia had to swallow another bitter pill when they drew 0-0
despite several goal chances in the decisive match.

The national junior team, who have begun to attract the
attention of many school girls, was finally ousted from the
semis.

Actually, in what way did the training, which is part of an
ambitious US$1.2 million project aimed at preparing the team to
enter the year 2002's World Cup finals, differ from the one
administered on home's soil?

The answer is, of course, not Italian language, although the
teenager players said they understood well all Italian
instructions given by their coach Romano Matte who is also vice
president of Sampdoria, one of the world's soccer giants.

The team's star, Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto, the first Indonesian
player to have been picked up by Sampdoria to train together with
Italian stars such as Ruud Gullit and Attilo Lombardo, summed up
the one-year stint in two-words: "teamwork organization".

"How to develop a well-organized team; that's what's new to
us," said midfielder Ismayana Arsyad when asked the same
question.

"Performing an organized defense and attack are the kind of
training that we didn't get on home's soil," said another
midfielder, Bima Sakti Tukiman, who is 18 year old.

Seventeen-year-old Kurniawan told The Jakarta Post that he was
previously not aware of the importance of teamwork organization.

"I used to play instinctively and rely only on my feeling when
it comes to attack and when to defend," Kurniawan said, "But now
I know that's professionally not correct. Instead of
concentrating only on your own individual moves, you must focus
on harmonizing the other members' with yours."

Kurniawan said training not only developed his individual
techniques significantly, but also taught him to discipline
himself and to be always on time for training.

"I learned that there are schemes and patterns of playing
soccer," Ismayana said, "And the task of every team member is to
fit themselves into a certain attack or defensive pattern which
will most benefit your team on a given situation," he added.

According to Ismayana, there are similarities between playing
soccer and playing chess. "If you're attacked from the right
flank, for instance, there are best patterns to counter it. You
have to learn and practice repeatedly how to quickly form those
best patterns whenever you encounter such attack."

National coach Danurwindo, who was also with the team during
their stay in Italy, told The Post it was during the training in
Italy that the team learned how to play soccer correctly.

This means, Danurwindo stressed, that playing soccer is
collective and hence, each player must always bear in mind that
their team is not Kurniawan's nor another striker's but a
collection of eleven players.

Discipline

Goalie Kurnia Sandy, when asked what he didn't receive from
trainings on home's soil, said he can now better and more
tactfully decide whether to take the ball or not, when and how.

Sandy, who is the team's tallest player, said he also learned
a sort of acrobatics: how to aptly and swiftly adjust to the
course of the ball and anticipate its next course.

Another important thing learned in Italy, according 19-year-
old Sandy, was discipline. "Here in Indonesia, you can ignore
discipline. You can play at will, or simply walk if you feel
tired after making an attack, and no one will make a hell about
it," he said.

Sandy, who was also Kurniawan's room-mate, added that their
matches with Italian clubs were filmed that they can study their
mistakes in slow-motion.

Kurniawan said they trained six days a week in Italy. On
Mondays and Tuesdays they trained for one and a half hour, on
Thursdays and Fridays for two hours. On Wednesdays and Saturdays
they joined the junior Italian premier league's competitions.

During the one-year stint, Ismayana said, they played 22
times. "We lost 4-1 in the first round and 3-1 in the second
round against Sampdoria's junior team in the junior premier
league," Ismayana said, "but in a try-out match against Juventus
junior, we managed a draw." Sandy added that during the one-year
stint they made four suicidal goals.

Kurniawan, Bima Sakti, Ismayana and Sandy are among 20 players
sent to Italy by the All-Indonesian Football Association in July
last year after being selected three months before.

According to Ismayana, they were selected out of 41, who were
then shortlisted into 27 and eventually into 20.

The selection tests included their individual techniques, IQ
test and health tests, 18-year-old Ismayana said.

However, being trained together for one-year does not
guarantee that they can communicate well with each other.

The four told the Post that miscommunication while they were
playing often hamper their solidity as a team.

"We still erroneously understand each other, or mistakenly
interpret each other's move," Sandy said.

"Hence, we must talk much and explain," Kurniawan said.

Kurniawan, Bima Sakti, Ismayana and Sandy are now on their top
form. They all said they would play soccer as long as they could
but not all of them have ideas about their future.

Bima Sakti and Sandy said they had no idea what to do if the
time comes where they no longer can play football. But Sandy who
already has a girl-friend, said that although marriage is still a
long way off, "I will marry, for sure."

Kurniawan said if one day he could no longer work as a soccer
player, he wish he could become a businessman who cares for the
development of Indonesian football.

Ismayana said he might consider a job in a private company
should he reached a nadir of his football career.

Pondering the future can make man wise. But they might have to
soon forget all this because the team is scheduled to return to
Italy next month, chairman of the All-Indonesian Football
Association Azwar Anas told reporters after the team was ousted
from semis, to participate in another competition in the junior
Italian premier league.

The girls will just have to wait.