JAKARTA (25 Nov 2011) – Despite his inability to deliver Indonesia’s first football gold medal in 14 years, Rahmad Darmawan will still be given the faith to lead the Under-23 team for the next SEA Games in 2013 which will be hosted by Myanmar.
Indonesia’s hope of the gold medal on home soil was dashed last week when they were denied in the penalty shootout by defending champions Malaysia.
“Even before the final game against Malaysia, I had already told Rahmad on the need to continue with this process of looking for the best players in Indonesia. So as far as we are concerned, Rahmad will still lead the squad for the next SEA Games in two year’s time which will be hosted by Myanmar,” said Djohar Ariffin, the president of the FA of Indonesia (PSSI).
Djohar said that the current squad is definitely better than the one which took part at the SEA Games in 2009 that was hosted by Laos.
“Two years ago, we did not even make the cut for the semi-finals when we finished at the bottom of the group in the preliminary round. So there’s a definite improvement for sure. Now, it is a question of continuity and to improve what we already have currently.”
