The players` stamina is a very crucial point to be stepped up because after defeating Turkmenistan 4-3 in the second round of the Asian zone on Thursday, Indonesia is then scheduled to play the next first match in Iran on September 2 and after that it will host Bahrain on September 6 and Qatar on October 11.
Bob Hippy, member of the executive committee of the All Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) for national team coordination said here on Sunday Indonesia is seeing Qatar as the strongest opponent in the next Pre-World Cup 2014 round.
"Of the three, Qatar is the strongest opponent although we also may underestimate the other two," Bob Hippy said.
In a tossup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday, Indonesian soccer team has been put in Group E along with Iran, Qatar and Bahrain.
In the fourth match, Indonesia will play in Qatar on November 11 and after that hosting Iran on November 15.
Then, in the final match the Indonesian team will go to Bahrain on February 29, 2012.
The best two of the teams in Group E would go to the fourth round of the Pre-World Cup 2014 for Asia Zone, Bob Hippy said.
In addition, two teams from other Southeast Asian countries namely Singapore and Thailand are also to face strong opponents.
Singapore is put in Group A along with China, Jordan and Iraq while Thailand is in Group D along with Australia, Saudi Arabia and Oman, Bob Hippy noted.
According to him, Qatar is now preparing itself to be the host for the 2022 World Cup while its soccer team is now being trained by Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac and strengthened by a lot of naturalized players.
Milovan Rajevac who replaced French Bruno Metsu since February has already handled the team for seven matches with one win, two draws and four losses.
"Qatar is preparing itself very seriously and it has a lot of naturalized players that make them possible to prepare themselves maximally during the fasting month. Whatever it is, our team will also be prepared maximally," Bob said.
Meanwhile, the Indonesia`s national team will start training on August 4, to be led by chief coach Wim Rijsbergen with Listiadi as his assistant coach.
In the meantime, the national team new coach Wilhelmus Wim Rijbergen believed the players` stamina decreasing and caused scare especially in the last minute of the second half of the match when the Indonesian team met Turkmenistan in Jakarta.
Commenting on the Thursday`s match, Wim said "The players` stamina going down. In such condition, the players` concentration rapidly lost and the opponent (Turkmenistan) created two goals."
Actually in the first half, the Indonesian team had led 3-0 after striker Cristian Gonzales opened the scores for the national team with goal in the tenth and 18th minute before the defender Muhammad Nasuha made the third one in the 43rd minute.
In the second half, the national team made another goal which was scored by M. Ridwan in the 75 minute. However, Turkmenistan scored three, including that made by Berdy Shamuradov in the 83rd minute and Sarkisov David in 86th minute.
On last Saturday`s first leg match in Ashgabat, Indonesia-Turkmenistan shared a 1-1 draw.
After paying attention to the second half of the Thursday`s match, Wim said the Indonesian players must immediately improve their physical condition in order that it would be better on the third round of the match.
Aside from that, the Indonesian striker Christian Gonzales also realized about the national team stamina decrease on the second half of the Thursday match.
Meanwhile, the PSSI chairman Djohar Arifin Husin said he was quite worried about the national players` stamina that could cause errors when the stamina has decreased.
Djohar also said, the decreased stamina of the Indonesian players was evident when the defense sector of the national team was fooled by the opponent in the last ten minutes that succeeded in creating two goals.
For the future the back sector of the national team need to be strengthened, Djohar expressed a hope.
A serious effort should be made to increase the Indonesian soccer players` stamina and better strategy prior to the next matches to face Iran on September 2, Bahrain on September 6 and Qatar on October 11.
(T.B003/H-NG/A014)
Reporter: by Bustanuddin
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
