Jul 11, 2007

There's Always a Good @ the Beginning


Always Good At Beginning: INA defeated Bahrain 2-1.
In the year 1996, Indonesia got success in the first match at Asian Cup by make a draw score Kuwait 2-2 (Ina leading first 2-0). At 2000, draw again 0-0 to (again) Kuwait. 2004,
The first victory to Qatar, make Qatar’s head coach Philippe Troussier loose his job. Ina win 2-1. And finally on July 10th, Tuesday evening, on Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Indonesia –by the goal from Budi Sudarsono and Bambang Pamungkas- got their dream start to their Asian Cup campaign here as they shocked Bahrain –another Gulf country- by score 2-1 in group D.

Ranked 143rd in the world by FIFA, Indonesia bombarded Bahrain from the kick off with several well-coordinated attacks. Firman Utina become the man of the match. Indonesia will take on three-time Asian Cup champion Saudi Arabia on Saturday and later play two-time champion South Korea in its last group match next Wednesday.
That gave the minnows an unlikely victory over Bahrain, who finished fourth in the competition three years ago in China. The skillful Indonesians settled first, making light of their physical inferiority, and gave notice of their counter-attacking threat with a series of lightning forays deep into Bahraini territory that ended only with poor decision-making. Bahrain didn't heed the warning signs and the hosts deservedly opened the scoring on 14 minutes with a move of exquisite simplicity. The throbbing Gelora Bung Karno stadium, of one the biggest in Asia, erupted with unbridled joy. Bahrain were looking rattled but Indonesia's suspect defence always seemed likely to offer them a way back into the match - and so it proved on 27 minutes.
Ivan Kolev -Indonesian's coach from Bulgary- said on http://www.afcasiancup.com that “Thanks to all the players because they played like soldiers and played towards the target,” said Kolev. “They proved they could win. “Thanks, too, to the fans who came to the stadium. The people came to the stadium, just like we asked them to. And thirdly, thanks also to the people who supported the national team before the event started. Firman Utina was man of the match, but all of the players played well.”
The victory over Qatar three years ago was followed by losses against Bahrain and hosts China as the Indonesians struggled to continue their start and was part of a pattern that has seen the nation impress in the early stages of previous competitions before exiting at the end of the group stage.
Kolev, though, refused to dwell on past tournaments and chose, instead, to celebrate the win. “I don’t want to talk about the past, let’s look at the result today and be happy and then start thinking about tomorrow,” he said. However, Kolev’s celebrations could be tempered by injuries to captain Ponaryo Astaman and Mahyadi Panggabean, who were both taken off in the first half and the team will assess their condition ahead of the game against Saudi Arabia, and last game in the group versus Korea Republic. “Both players had old injuries, they weren’t new injuries and we will have our medical team look at them and do their best to make sure both players are ready for the next game,” Kolev said. OK Pak Kolev, good luck for the 1st play. But remember PSSI always got a good performance @ the beginning, but next... and the end... Lets go to Senayan
Source from: ttp://www.afcasiancup.com/, the Jakarta Post, http://www.brisbanetimes.com, another from goal.com

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