Rafael Struick's Simple Hope: Lakoni Debuts With The Indonesian National Team
JAKARTA - Rafael Struick is one of the players who is now in training camp with the Indonesian national team. The naturalized players are included in 26 names prepared for two FIFA Matchdays.
The Indonesian national team will meet Palestine on June 14. After that, it was Argentina's turn to be treated, on June 19.
For Struick, this is the first training camp after officially becoming an Indonesian citizen. He hopes to make his debut in the match against Palesina which took place at Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium, Surabaya.
"I hope to get playing time when competing later. Hopefully, through this training, my ability can be seen. I will give everything a hundred percent in every exercise. We'll see what the results will be," Struick said as quoted from PSSI's official website.
Struick also expressed his pleasure because more and more national team players could join the training camp. With the completeness of the national team squad, Struick also believes that the communication and coordination between players will be better.
"Many players have joined and we are starting to unite all the players as a team. I think today the training is going well and I am happy to be training with the whole team. We will work hard in these two weeks," said the Dutch-born player, as quoted by Antara, Thursday, June 8.
However, Struick's adaptation process with his national team colleagues was slightly hampered due to the hot weather in Surabaya. However, the 20-year-old player is tough and will get used to it as soon as possible.
"The weather, as I said, is very hot. But I have to get used to this weather," Struick said.