INDONESIA STILL COMMITTED TO ATTACK
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 19 Dec 2010
Indonesia assistant coach Wolfgang Pikal has insisted that his side will not be adopting a defensive attitude to protect their one-goal advantage when they face the Philippines in the second leg of their AFF Suzuki Cup semi-final at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Sunday.
Cristian Gonzales' first-half-header has given the hosts a precious 1-0 advantage going into the return match. But according to Pikal, that is unlikely to change the attacking philosophy of the Indonesian side for the second leg.
"We have a team which is attack-minded and we like to play an open game," said the Austrian.
"We don't forget to defend, of course, but because we're playing at home, we also feel that we have the responsibility to our fans to play an open game."
While Vietnam coach Henrique Calisto blasted the defensive approach of the Filipino side after his side lost 2-0 to the Azkals earlier in the tournament, Pikal believes that his opponents are perfectly within their rights to play that way.
"I think that the Philippines team is very good and how they play is the choice of their coach.
"If they want to play defensively then we have nothing to complain about ? after all in the UEFA Champions League, Inter Milan played at the back for 90 minutes against Barcelona and nobody complained. They can play how they want and nobody should complain.
"They also have some good players and we will have to try to anticipate their qualities."
Pikal did reveal that his team have a couple of fitness concerns heading into the match with skipper Firman Utina and striker Irfan Bachdim nursing injuries.
"Firman Utina and Irfan Bachdim have had slight knocks and some problems. But our physio has been working very hard to make them fit. We still have 30 hours to go before the game so we will evaluate them and make a decision on whether they will play by lunchtime tomorrow."
Having won all four of their games so far in the tournament, Indonesia are the favourites to reach the final and win it all. However, Pikal feels that the expectations now being weighed on the team by the Indonesian media and public may not be in the best interests of the players.
"The expectations now are very high," he lamented. "There was no reason at the beginning of the tournament for such high expectations because we haven't won anything in Indonesia for a long time.
"But we started very well and it's like a snowball effect because all of the media ? not only the sports media but the entertainment and celebrity channels ? have hitched up on it and they've fired up the whole thing. I think it is not good for the players.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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