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ept. 3, online

The Indonesian national soccer team lost 0-3 to Iran during the third round of the 2014 Pre-World Cup qualification match at Azadi Stadium in Teheran, Iran, on Saturday.

The Indonesian defense was unable to hold off the attacks by the Iranian team.

Iran scored goals by Javad Nekonam during the 53rd and 74th minute of the game and by Andranik Timotian Smarani in the 87th minute.

According to Indonesian national team coach Wim Rijsbergen, the physical posture of the Indonesian players was inferior to their Iranian competitors, giving the Iranian team the advantage.

Your comments:

Yes, they are taller than Indonesian players, but not too tall. What’s wrong with you Mr. Wim Rijsbergen?

They are footballers like Puyol, Xavi Hernandez, Leo Messi, Tevez, David Silva, David Villa and Cun Aguero.

Benery Adi
Jakarta

As I’ve prophesied before that we would surely lose the game against Iran for it is simply the strongest team in the group but we just never expected our loss to be this bad: 0 – 3.

Therefore, we have to work a lot harder for a final score of 4 - 3 in our favor. I don’t entirely agree with what Wim has told us about our physicality, which has been blamed as the culprit that led to our suffering.

It is, instead, our loss of concentration during the second half. The most important thing of all is the inability of our goalkeeper to do his job properly.

I think Wim likes to keep upping the ante when playing poker without heeding the banker’s cards on the table by placing him as goalkeeper.

Just take a look at our goalkeeper’s first minutes during the first half, how he was superior enough to intercept and catch balls that kept coming directly at him.

At that time, I wished that he would keep doing the same good thing for the entire game. But then again, I was wrong to expect him to be able do his job properly, just like the AFF final last year.

Suddenly, the balls just didn’t come directly to our goalkeeper’s path as they did in the first half and that’s when all hell broke loose. Actually those balls came within his reach, but somehow he was unable to catch them for the third time in a row.

Anyway, we can still look toward the light at the end of the tunnel for it’s still far from over.

Acce
Cirebon, West Java

Iranian players are superior both in technique and posture.

So do not dream of seeing our team win.

Bambang S
Semarang