Nat'l. team first trial match

March 26, 2001

Playing pressing football is not a guarantee that a team will score a lot of goals. At least this was shown when the national had their first trial match against First Division outfit Mitra Kalteng Putra on Saturday (3/24).

In this game, the national team dominated the match though only won with a fine score of 2-1. Horrible finishing touches from the strikers negated the amount of pressure they put on opponent players.

"We had a lot of chances of scoring, but none turned into goals. We have to work on this," said Benny Dollo, the national team architect.

Technically, pressing football that Benny tries to emphasize on his players is starting to show. Even though the squad is dominated by junior players, each one of them was active in building up the attack. Especially a good performance was from right winger Yaris Riyadi, whose forward runs and crossballs really tore down the opponent's defense. Unfortunately, many of those crosses were wasted away up front.

According to Benny, "The boys are still playing individually and selfish. They haven't shown a good understanding with his teammates, let alone good teamwork."

But this is one thing that the coaches hope will soon go away. The players have only played together for five days, and not enough time among them to create harmony on the pitch. For example, current league top scorer Budi Sudarsono looked stagnant when he was paired with Persita's Zainal Arief.

The two goals for the national team was created by Semen Padang's forward Purwanto in the 15th minute, and it looked rather offside. The second goal was created by Gendut Dony Christiawan from the penalty spot in the 45th minute.

Meanwhile, since PKT Bontang's defender Djet Donald Laala couldn't make it to the national team selection due to injury, Benny has called up a young Persikabo's defender as his replacement, Dullah Ba'a. He also called up Barito Putra's Sunar Sulaiman as the replacement for Persipura's Oktavianus Kanath, who is also hampered by injury.

Squad for the match against Mitra Kalteng Putra:

gk Achmad Kurniawan,

def Anwar Panda, Rolando Koibur, Joao Bosco Cabral / Warsidi,

mid Firman Utina / Elly Aiboy, Yaris Riyadi (capt), Maman / Andrian Mardiansyah, Erol FX Iba, Ismed Sofyan / Supriono,

fwd Purwanto / Budi Sudarsono, Gendu Dony / Zainal Arief / Bambang Pamungkas

from Jawa Pos Online