JAKARTA (12 Feb 2012) – After watching his Under-21 side crashed to a 2-0 loss to Hyundai Mipo Dockyard on Friday, chief coach Widodo Putro admitted that there are far too many weaknesses in the Indonesian squad and that they need to improve in several areas.
In the match that was played at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, which play in the lower Korean National League, scored twice off Lee Jin Woo in the 67th minute and Lee Jae Min in the 89th minute for the win.
“There are a lot of areas which we need to improve on,” said Widodo. “It was obvious that the game against this Korean side showed a lot of weaknesses and this we must improve in the next game.”
Widodo pointed out that among the obvious was the failure of the team to switch their mode of play quickly enough from defensive to offensive positions. This failure allowed the opponents to capitalize on the available spaces to move forward.
“Ball possession is another issue. We just can’t keep the ball long enough and that saw the players pushing for long balls against a team which generally has taller players,” he added.
“Generally it was a good game as we played against a team which was really superior to us and that really put pressure on the players.”
The next two friendlies for the Indonesia U21 squad are against Persiba Bantul and UNJ which will be played in Yogyakarta.
