Ami Afriatni

Indonesian U-23 Football Team Under Pressure at SEA Games

Vientiane, Laos. With its fate not in its own hands, victory alone will not soothe the nerves of the Indonesian under-23 football team.

A win today against Burma in their Group B finale will not guarantee the Indonesian team a place in the Southeast Asian Games semifinals.

Anything other than a win, though, trims those chances from slim to none.

Indonesia landed in dire straits after losing 2-0 to host Laos on Monday. After opening with a 2-2 draw against Singapore, it needs to beat Burma by a healthy margin and have Laos lose to Singapore to take second place in the group.

According to SEA Games rules, the first tiebreaker for teams finishing level on points is head-to-head record, then goal difference is taken into account.

A draw between Laos and Singapore would see both teams advance at the expense of Indonesia and Burma.

“We’ll try to forget the loss, and a win over Burma would heal our wounds a bit,” Indonesia captain Tony Sucipto said on Wednesday. “It’ll be hard, but we’ll keep fighting.”

Indonesia has two wins, two draws and a loss against Burma at previous SEA Games.

It has, however, not beaten its regional rival in the last three SEA Games tournaments, losing 1-0 in 2001 and drawing the next two meetings 0-0.

As if the mathematics were not difficult enough, Indonesia must also overcome some key absences. Striker Boaz Solossa will likely miss the Burma match with an injured left foot, as will Rahmat Latief (right ankle) and Djayusman Triasdi (left knee).

“I’ll wait until the last minute before deciding whether to play them or not,” said Uruguayan coach Alberto Bica.

He also urged his players to stick with the game plan and not slip into old habits.

“I was asking them to play short passes, instead they played long passes and it didn’t work out well,” he said.

Indonesia and Burma play at 3 p.m. today, with Laos and Singapore following at 5:45 p.m.

The matches were moved from Chao Anuvong Stadium, which has a capacity of 10,000, to the 20,000-seat Main Stadium.

SEA Games organizers said on their Web site the matches were moved because of a huge demand from home supporters after Laos beat Indonesia and gave itself a good chance of reaching the semifinals.

“We asked the organizers to play both games simultaneously at different stadiums because these are the deciding games, but they rejected our request,” said Indonesia team manager Andi Darussalam Tabusalla.

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