JAKARTA The captain of the Indonesian national team Fachruddin Aryanto hopes that Indonesia can get the AFF Cup winner sustenance this year after previously a runner-up subscription.
The Garuda squad will start their journey in Group A phase of the biennial competition against Cambodia at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium, Friday, December 23 at 16.30 WIB tomorrow.
Fachruddin said that although Indonesia cannot be strengthened by names like Elkan Baggott and Sandy Walsh, the current competition remains convincing to come out as champions.
"Now there are many combinations, naturalization with many players who yesterday also had a lot of experience in international matches, I hope this year can be better than the previous year," said the Bali United player.
Indonesia has entered a total of six final matches in this competition in Southeast Asia. However, from those six opportunities, Pasuka Garuda always came out as runner-up.
Indonesia obtained the first two runners-up in 2000 and 2002 editions. Meanwhile, the next four runner-up positions were obtained in 2004, 2010, 2016, and the last edition of 2016, respectively.
"We have to fight whatever the conditions are that we are in sight for the tournament. We have been doing TC for about a month in Bali, we continue to move it here," he said.
"So, tomorrow we are ready to give our best. Maybe we will have a home game. There is no reason whatsoever, we have to be 100 percent ready for tomorrow's match," he added.
Indonesia is predicted to get three points in the group's inaugural match. The reason is, from the previous five meetings, Indonesia has always won over Angkor Warriors.
Indonesia's first victory over Cambodia began in the first edition of 1996. At that time, the Angkor Warriors troops were beaten with a landslide score of three goals without reply.
Indonesia then won in the next four editions each occurred in 2002 (4-2), following 2004 which was the biggest victory (8-0), followed in 2008 (4-0), and most recently 2020 (4-2).
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