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RI squad looks up to Germany for its soccer patriotism
A national coach for the Indonesian soccer squad is taking a leaf out of Germany’s book in terms of using patriotism to boost players’ morale, something that he considers significant to ensuring good performance on the field
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national coach for the Indonesian soccer squad is taking a leaf out of Germany’s book in terms of using patriotism to boost players’ morale, something that he considers significant to ensuring good performance on the field.
Such strategies could be vital as the Garuda team has a busy schedule in the coming weeks with a series of international matches, including August’s 2017 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Malaysia, and friendlies to attend.
“We are learning from what the German team, among others, has shown all this time. The Germans say that the love for their country has served as their source of energy when they are on the field,” Indra Sjafri, coach of the national under-19 team, said on Wednesday.
For that purpose, most coaches are now familiar with instilling patriotic values in their players during training sessions, he said, adding that players giving their best for the national teams was a way for them to fight for their country.
At nearly every training session, he added, all players are reintroduced to the national ideology Pancasila in a practical manner and sing the national anthem “Garuda Pancasila” to increase their patriotism.
“I have been sensing improvement but it’s still too early to say that we are going to see the results anytime soon. Everything is still in process,” Indra said on the sidelines of Wednesday’s event “Jagoan Bola Giant untuk Indonesia” (Giant’s Top Soccer Player for Indonesia), which was organized by retailer Giant.
The program was tailored to scout for young talent in Palembang, Makassar, Surabaya, Bandung and Jakarta throughout September this year. Giant, in cooperation with Nine Sport Inc. and RCD Espanyol, one of the La Liga professional clubs, will then send two of the best players from the program to train with Espanyol for 10 months in Barcelona.
Besides the scouting program, Espanyol will also have friendly matches against Persija Jakarta, currently ranked fifth in the ongoing Indonesia’s Liga 1 soccer league, on July 19 at the Patriot Stadium in Bekasi, West Java; as well as the national U19 squad at Gelora Bandung Lautan Api stadium in Bandung on July 14.
The friendly against Espanyol is among Indonesia’s preparations ahead of the SEA Games showdown.
Bhayangkara FC striker Evan Dimas, who used to train with RCD Espanyol, said he got a lot of knowledge and learned additional skills during the training, thanks to the state-of-the-art facilities owned by the club.
After leaving Espanyol’s training ground, Evan recognized the huge gap between Spain and Indonesia in terms of the quality of soccer fields.
“I find that all the facilities at the Spain-based training ground stimulate us to keep on training. Here in Indonesia, everything seems to be contradictory,” said the 22-year-old, who has 10 national caps in the senior team with one goal since 2014.
Meanwhile, regarding Indonesia’s plan to play in more international and friendly matches, the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) is in hunting mode to recruit as many new strikers as possible.
“We are still lacking swift strikers, and that’s why we are hoping to find more through [development] programs like this [scouting event],” said PSSI deputy secretary general Fanny Irawan, adding that finding qualified strikers is still PSSI’s biggest problem.
In three friendly matches this year, Indonesia held Puerto Rico at 0-0 on June 13, won 2-0 against Cambodia on June 8 and lost 3-1 to Myanmar on March 21.
