JAKARTA (12 May 2014) – Alfred Riedl, the head coach of Indonesia, said that he was very impressed with the several new faces that had turned out in Indonesia’s 1-0 win over the ASEAN All-Stars last night at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
Among the newcomers to the national side were Risky Rizaldi (from Barito Putra), Asri Akbar (Sriwijaya), Imanuel Permenas Padwa and Steven Anderson Imbiri (both from Persiram Raja Ampat).
The ASEAN All-Stars team fell to a 1-0 loss to the homesters with the only goal of the coming in the 13th minute off Talaohu Abdul Mushafry.
“I was very happy with the performance of the newcomers,” said Riedl. “In all likelihood, several will be called again for future national team training.
“Following from the recent trip to Spain, there is a realisation that we need to look at new players and the truth is that we had already called more than 40 players.
“And ten were new faces.”
Riedl said that from now on, all programmes for the national team are geared towards the AFF Suzuki Cup which will be hosted by Vietnam and Singapore at the end of the year.
As such, he pointed out that the FA of Indonesia (PSSI) will have to make sure that they line up quality oppositions over the next several months especially during the FIFA international calendar months.
“We will have centralised training next month and so it will be a good opportunity to play some good games,” he added.
