The selection team`s coach, Rahmad Darmawan, asked his charges to play maximally because the world-class player (David Beckham) would be in the LA Galaxy.
"The (Wednesday) match can be used to measure how high our team has climbed on the ladder of soccer excellence so far. Anyway, we do, of course, want to win the match," the former Sriwijaya FC coach said here on Monday (Nov 28).
In the meantime, David Beckham,36, promised he would show his best performance and so would the LA Galaxy players such as Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan in the match that will take place in the Bung Karno main stadium on Wednesday (Nov.30).
The players under coach Bruce Arena had just won the MLS 2011 championship.
At a press conference at Hotel Ritz Carlton, Jakarta, Beckham said, "The match against the selection team will certainly be exciting. Every team we are playing against is certainly not easy to beat but we will strive to win the match."
The former player of Real Madrid said he was already impatient to start the match, moreover, he wished to show to the world that the team he is now playing for is the best.
Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane who both used to play in the British Premier League also promised to play maximally in the match against Patrich Wanggai and his team mates.
The Indonesian national team will consist of under-23 and senior players led by coach Rahmad Darmawan and be supported by naturalized players such as Greg Nwokolo and Victor Igbonefo.
"We wish to give the best. I am optimistic everything will be achieved if we play with passion and seriously," Rahmad Darmawan said.
Meanwhile, the national team however will miss Boas Salossa and Titus Bonai as its spearheads as they have to play for their club at the opening of the Indonesia Super League (ISL) for the 2011 season on December 1. The ISL is organized by PT Liga Indonesia.
Speaking in a press conference Rahmad Darmawan said, apart from two players hailing from Papua, namely Boas Salossa and Titus Bonai (Tibo), another player would also not be able to strengthen the National Selection team. He was Abdul Rahman who had to strengthen the Semen Padang team, the coach said in a press conference.
According to Rahmad Darmawan, he had prepared three other players to replace those who could not be part of the selection team. The stand-ins were Gunawan Dwi Cahyo, Muhammad Ilham and Zulkifly Sukur.
"There is no problem, all players are ready to do their best. The point is we will field a combination of young and senior players," he said, adding that if all members of the national selection team play seriously, he was optimistic that the selection team would be able to fight.
In the meantime, the Jakarta Metropolitan Police will deploy 2,819 personnel to ensure security during the friendly match.
"Police officers will check every spectator`s belongings," operations chief Senior Commissioner Agung Budi Maryoto said here on Monday.
He said he would station 15 police personnel in addition to five personnel from the match`s organizing committee at every entrance gate.
He said the police would also assign personnel to secure the teams and also to control traffic.
He said however that the Jakarta police would not provide security personnel to guard LA Galaxy players including David Beckham because they had their own security guards.
"The organizing committee may ask for special security (for them) but so far no request has been made to us," he said.
Agung said he hoped the committee would be transparent in selling tickets to prevent possible chaos in the stadium.
He said the organizing committee must inform the police about the number of tickets to be sold and the time of ticket sales at each counter so that the police could monitor the ticket buying crowds to ensure security.
The committee predicts the number of spectators may reach 40,000 but the police have urged the committee to also set up some large tv screens outside the stadium in case more people would come to see the match and the stadium could not accommodate them all.
The police and the committee had also coordinated to prevent distribution of fake tickets.
Two people were killed in a stampede before the final match of the recent 26th South East Asian (SEA) Games football event between the national U-23 team and the Malaysian team recently. Indonesia lost 3-2 in a dramatic shootout after the match ended in a 1-1 draw despite extra time. (*)
Reporter: By Bustanuddin
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
