LHAKSANA DEPARTS ON A HIGH NOTE

Lhaksana announced two weeks ago that he would be stepping down after the AFC Futsal Championship whatever the result, but he was delighted to meet his target of a third-place finish in Group A.

“Today we showed that we can play Futsal well,” he said.

“This group was the toughest group and I wanted to show the Indonesian Football Association that the future of Futsal is much brighter than Indonesian football.”

However, Lhaksana will not be reconsidering his decision to walk away from the job due to his continued frustrations with the national association.

“Regardless of the result today, the coaching team is going to resign,” he added.

“I need a rest – I barely have time for myself. Hopefully the next coach will maintain this team.”

Sayan Karmadi struck a fierce shot into the top corner 33 seconds from time as Indonesia utilised a power-play to secure victory.

“We played quite well with power-play and Iraq didn’t know how to handle it,” Lhaksana added.

“We really wanted to win this game – this for us was a match that was dead or alive, we had to win.”

Lhaksana admitted Iraq were favourites for the contest, but he was thrilled with the result and performance.

“This was always going to be a very tough game” said Lhaksana. “Iraq are a very good team – they win on individual skill, they win on speed, they win in physical power.

“During the first half we were strong, but in the second half we defended much better and we have achieved the target.”

Lhaksana hopes the Indonesian FA will take note of his side’s display.

“With the facilities we’ve got this is a very good result that my players have achieved,” he added.

“But if you want to compete at the Asian level, you need to be strong in every factor of Futsal.

“But the result we have achieved is very good as we have very poor facilities in Indonesia.”