HAVE NO FEAR
Hodak does not want his charges to worry about hooliganism in Indonesia
NATIONAL Under-19 (U19) coach Bojan Hodak believes that his charges need not worry about the football hooligans issue in Indonesia as they head there for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Championship in Bekasi which begins on Oct 20.
The Croatian is confident with the security assurance provided by the organisers and all his players need only to focus on what they have to do on the field.
“I believe that we should not face any problems while we are over there, in fact we will not even be in the same group as hosts Indonesia, as usually problems only occur when we play against them,” said Hodak who left for Doha, Qatar earlier today (Wednesday) together with the U-19 team for a friendly match against the Qatari U-19 side this Friday.
Before this, the young national side endured a frightening experience when they were set upon by Indonesian fans who threw bottles and stones because they just could not accept the fact that their team lost during the semifinals of the AFF U-19 Championship that was held in Surabaya in July.
Incidents of violence did not stop there as a national Under-16 player had to endure extreme provocation from the hosts’ unruly supporters while playing in the AFF U-16 championship in August.
In the latest related developments, a Persija Jakarta supporter was beaten to death by a group of Persib Bandung supporters before a match involving both sides near the Gelora Bandung Stadium in Bandung.
Hodak however is adamant that the team’s focus and attention should be on preparing as best they can and he believes that they have a very good pool of players to pull off upsets in the championship.
“This is by far the best team that I have after putting the players through their paces for over a year. Before this most of the players did not even have the experience but they have shown a lot of improvements and they managed to win the AFF Cup and qualify for the final round of the AFC Championship,” stressed Hodak.
The young national side will face Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and China in Group D with the mission of earning a coveted place in the semi-finals as well as an automatic ticket for the Under-20 World Cup which will be held in Poland next year.