Sandy Pramuji & Saputra

The national team’s Syamsul Chaeruddin, center, trying to evade the Armed Forces FC keeper, right, in Saturday’s friendly. The national team won 8-1. (Photo: Andika Wahyu, Antara)

Indonesia To Face Iran in Friendly Football Match

The acid test national coach Benny Dollo has long waited for is finally lined up.

The national team will be in Tehran on Nov. 7 to take on Iran in a friendly, part of the squad’s preparations for its next 2011 Asian Cup qualifying match, the National Team Body confirmed on Saturday.

Indonesia’s previous calendar of friendlies in the lead-up to the Nov. 14 qualifier against Kuwait had to be scrapped because of fears over the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. The national side had been set to face Malaysia, China and Syria at home and away to Saudi Arabia, starting in August.

Over the weekend, BTN chief Rahim Soekasah said Benny and his squad would finally get a taste of top-notch competition.

“The Iranian FA has agreed with our proposal. We will now play them [in a friendly] before we meet Kuwait in the Asian Cup qualifying round,” Soekasah said.

Besides testing its performance on the pitch, the Tehran match will give Benny and the squad a chance to acclimatize themselves to the Gulf weather a week before the qualifier at Kuwait SC Stadium.

Indonesia sits third in Group B, with two draws against Oman and Australia. Only the two top finishers in each group will qualify for the tournament proper in Qatar.

After traveling to Kuwait, Indonesia will host the return match at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Nov. 18. The team is at home again when it faces Oman on Jan. 6 before it closes the group stage away to Australia on March 3.

Benny opened the Sawangan training camp on Sept. 25 with his team’s only warm-up match being against the Armed Forces FC, which it beat easily 8-1 on Saturday.

The national team will break camp tomorrow so that the players can return to their respective clubs for the start of the Indonesian Super League, which kicks off on Sunday. They will convene again a week before they depart for Tehran.

“Though we only have a short training camp, I’m quite pleased with the players’ development and their good understanding about the kind of play that I want,” Benny said.

“I have no worries at all that my players won’t be ready for the Asian Cup qualifiers,” the 58-year-old coach added.

In the Armed Forces match, strikers Boaz Solossa and Bambang Pamungkas each scored twice, while Ricardo Salampessy, Ian Louis Kabes, Eka Ramdani and Saktiawan Sinaga completed the rout. Abdul Razak scored the Armed Forces’ lone goal.

Despite the huge disparity in the score, Benny said he would still like to see some improvement from his defenders.

“It was clear that we still have weakness at the back, especially in transition from attacking to defending. We can’t afford that kind of mistake in Asian qualifying,” he said.

Meanwhile, the national junior team opened the Asian Under-16 Championship qualifiers with a 0-0 draw against lowly Bangladesh in Bacolod City, the Philippines, on Saturday.

The team is now two points behind favorite Japan, which blasted the hosts 12-0 in Group E.

Only the top two teams in all seven of the six-team groups will advance to the AFC tournament proper. The third-place side with the best record and the winner of Group H, which includes Australia, Laos and Malaysia, will also progress.

Indonesia’s second game in the competition is scheduled for Wednesday against home team the Philippines.

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