JAKARTA (31 March 2012) – Aji Santoso, the chief coach of the Indonesia national Under-22 squad, felt that the 3-0 loss the team suffered at the hands of Persijap Jepara at the Bumi Kartini Jepara Stadium is not a big problem.
Persijap Jepara carved out their first goal of the game off a rifling shot from Banaken Basoken in the 33rd minute as Noor Hadi then added the second goal two minutes later when he made good on a loose ball.
With the score at 2-0 to Persijap’s advantage, the duo of Samsul Arif and Ferdinand Sinaga just could not find a way through for the U22 side to find their first goal of the game. And in their haste to push forward, it was Persijap who got their third goal of the game from Bayu Andra’s close range shot in the 76th minute.
“We are not looking to win this game – that was not the point. We needed to look at all the available players to see how they perform under competitive atmosphere,” explained Aji (pix).
“We are looking at playing at least in five more friendlies to test this squad further.”
The young Indonesian squad is big prepared for the qualifying round of the AFC U22 Asian Cup which will be played out in June this year. Indonesia are placed in Group E of the qualifiers against Australia, Japan, Macau, Singapore and Timor Leste.
