U-19 National Team Holds First Training For U-20 World Cup, STY Boosts Players' Physical And Mental

JAKARTA - The head coach of the Indonesian national team, Shin Tae-yong has released a list of 40 names of U-19 players who are included in the team's preparation ahead of appearing in the 2023 U-20 World Cup. Wednesday, March 2, 32 players have joined for the inaugural training in Madya Stadium, Senayan.

Even though it's just his first practice, Shin Tae-yong has already determined what criteria he wants to get from the players as capital in the 2023 U-20 World Cup later.

The South Korean coach emphasized that there are two main criteria that he hopes the players can apply. It is a matter of physical and mental for the Young Garudas.

"We are preparing a roadmap, so that we can arrange players to be physically and mentally strong, so in this first practice the focus is there," said Shin Tae-yong after leading the practice.

In this first practice, Shin Tae-yong has seen the shortcomings of his foster children. However, he considered this to be a good thing because the earlier it was seen, the more optimal the chance to improve it before going directly to the real tournament.

"After we saw (in the first practice) it wasn't one or two things that had to be improved but a lot," explained the coach.

Shin Tae-yong assessed that the thing that needed to be improved or built on the U-19 national team squad, the most important thing was mental issues. After that, he will only physically galvanize Garuda Muda so that it does not lose competitiveness with potential opponents in the 2023 U-20 World Cup later.

"The main thing is to improve, such as starting from the mental side, after that maybe the opponent in the World Cup (U-23) will have a better posture than us, so we also have to strengthen physically and skills," said Shin Tae-yong.

Later, this training camp will last until March 6 next. After that, the U-19 national team will go to South Korea to undergo an advanced training camp until the end of April.

The agenda was prepared in preparation for appearing in the 2023 U-20 World Cup. While in South Korea, the national team will also undergo trial matches with several local clubs, one of which is the South Korea U-20 national team.