JAKARTA (10 Feb 2015) – Aji Santoso, the head coach of the Indonesia national Under-23 team, said that there should be some satisfaction after their 1-1 draw against Syria tonight considering that the team was still not 100%.
Aji said that a handful of the players had just come on board the previous week and had not much of a training session with the rest of the squad.
Among them were Anthony Putra Nugroho, Ilham Udin Armaiyn and Evan Dimas Darmono.
“This team is still very new,” said Aji. “At least five players have not had the opportunity to train, so this is a new team.”
In what was their first real test ahead of the AFC U23 qualifiers next month, the Indonesian U23 team fell to an early strike from Mahmoud Al Bahr in the 12th minute.
But Manahati Lestusen then converted a penalty for the hosts three minutes later.
“I thought that the players did well given the short time they were together,” he added.
“We have to look at the overall picture and not from just one point of view.”
