Courtesy: The Jakarta Globe


National Team Heads West With Modest Hopes, Light Pockets

When Indonesia leaves for the Asian Futsal Championship, it will do so with the modest goal of reaching the quarterfinals.

While the national team has qualified for every continental championshp save for 2006, it has yet to advance past the group stage. Its latest attempt to crack the last eight takes place May 23-30 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Indonesia took third place in its group at the 2008 Asian Championship in Bangkok, finishing behind Thailand and Kyrgyzstan. This year, it was drawn in Group A with Taiwan, Lebanon and the host nation after finishing second in Asean qualifying.

It missed out on top spot after suffering a 3-0 loss against Australia in the qualifying final at Gelora Bung Karno Tennis Indoor Stadium in February.

Coach Robby Hartono said he believed his squad could rewrite Indonesian futsal history by reaching the last eight, especially after winning the AFF Championship for the first time last month. Even the absence of regional power Thailand did not diminish his enthusiasm.

“If we can improve just a bit from our performances in Vietnam, I think we can at least finish second in the group,” Robby said on Tuesday.

However, he admitted he had no knowledge of the teams in the group other than Uzbekistan.

“We could only get Uzbekistan’s recorded matches, so we more or less know its style,” he said. “While the others, all I know is that they have bigger players.

“The most important thing is to play our game — play our signature fast counter-attacking with strong zonal-marking defense.”

Indonesia comes into the event with a good record against Taiwan, which it faces on Sunday. It won their only meeting 6-4 in the 2003 Asian Championship.

Its record against Uzbekistan and Lebanon is not so good, though. Indonesia lost 1-0 to Uzbekistan in the 2004 Asian Cup and fell twice to Lebanon, 5-3 in the 2005 Asian Cup and 3-0 in the 2007 Asian Indoor Games.

Another problem weighing on the squad is a lack of money, a familiar issue for Indonesian teams. Budget shortages forced the squad to scale back its initial plans to hold international friendlies to prepare for the tournament. Instead, it played warm-ups against eight local clubs.

In addition, it scrapped plans to travel to Uzbekistan a week before the tournament, choosing instead to arrive just three days before its first match.

Even with those cuts, the Indonesian Futsal Commission struggled to meet the Rp 600 million ($60,000) budget to send the team to Tashkent as the Indonesian Football Association did not have enough money to cover its expenses.

“We met Minister of Youth and Sport Andi Malarangeng to ask for help and he gave us full support, including financial support,” commission chief Ferry Paulus said on Tuesday. “The team will leave for Uzbekistan on Thursday morning.”

Ferry refused to reveal how much the minister provided to the team, saying only it covered almost half of the team’s needs.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com