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.