NT players analyzing China's videos

March 31, 2001

On Friday (3/30) night, all national players in selection gathered together with the coaches and other officials to study and analyze Chinese national team's strengths and weaknesses by watching their videos. Head coach Benny Dollo said that after each video was played, all players were encouraged to put forth their analysis and opinions of the game.

"In our group, China is the hardest opponent. Because of that, all the players have to fully understand what their strengths are, and all have to be able to think on what they should do on the field when facing them. This way, we may find on the best solution against China. The same thing of course is being done with Cambodia and Maldives, but our greatest concentration is on China," said Benny.

Furthermore, remembering that China is one of the major forces in Asia, the mentality of his players need to worked on so that they'll have high self-confidence coming against Chinese players. According to Benny, in a few of the friendly matches against local teams, some of the players look 'lost' and doubtful in making the initiatives and decisions under pressure.

"This psychological factor arises because the players weren't confident of their skills and abilities. Even worse because their lack of good stamina. This is something that we're still working on, and that's why this squad consists of mostly senior and experienced players rather than junior 1979-and-after players for the SEA Games," said Benny.

He gave an example. After four of PSM players, Hendro Kartiko, Ronny Ririn, Bima Sakti, and Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto joined the squad, the team's self-confidence started to rise.

Even then, extra attention are still being given to the fourteen U23 players who have been called up to the national selection, because they're practically form the shadow team for the national squad.

"It's truly dilemmatic. On one hand, we have to fight our best in the World Cup qualifiers. On the other hand, we have to think about our long-term youth development for the SEA Games and beyond.

"That's why I'm hoping that Tumpak Sihite (FAI's head of scouts) will have an extra training center, just for the U23 players. So there will two selections for the national team for SEA Games, with some players still in the World Cup qualifiers team, and the rest of the players - about 16 of them - are trained together with Tumpak," said Benny.

from www.sepak-bola.tv