The U-17 Indonesian National Team Potentially Meets Tough Opponents, Erick Thohir: The Key To Cooperation And Guts

Indonesian U-17 national team. (Photo: Doc. PSSI)

JAKARTA - The 2023 U-17 World Cup draw will be held today, Friday, September 15. Indonesia is at Pot 1 with the status of the host.

The opportunity for the U-17 Indonesian national team in the group phase of the u-17 World Cup 2023 to meet tough opponents remains open. At Pot 2 with the UK co-korch, Japan, Argentina, South Korea.

Then in Pot 3 there are Iran, the United States and Senegal. Meanwhile, at Pot 4, Poland could be one of the potential opponents of the Garuda Nusantara squad.

Chairman of the All-Indonesian Football Association (PSSI), Erick Thohir, said that Bima Sakti's team should not be afraid if later they are in the same group as a strong team. The U-17 national team must have high guts.

"The potential of a group with a strong state team is sure to exist. However, I believe in sports, especially in team play, the key is cooperation and guts. We often see in World Cup events, the leading team falls by the team under it," said Erick, as quoted by Antara.

"What is certain is that there will be challenges when Indonesia enters Pot 1 as the flagship team. But what do you want to say, it's privilege as the host. Therefore, long ago we at PSSI have prepared so that the Garuda Muda national team really deserves to be in the leading position," he continued.

The Nyali, said Erick, would be trained by his party when he sent the U-17 national team, which was trained by Bima Sakti and accompanied by coach Frank Alasuth's consultant, to conduct a training camp in Germany for approximately one month which will depart on September 16.

In Germany later, the U-17 national team plans to hold several test matches. In addition to fighting the local club, Garuda Nusantara will also play against the national team which can test the mentality and skills of the players.

"The National Training Center to Germany is also to add non-technical things to the team so that they will get used to fighting foreign teams, have strong guts, and continue to fight until the final whistle," said Erick.