With the arrival of the Indonesia Football team on Saturday (12th August), the team held their first training session at UKM Stadium, Bangi, Selangor in accordance to set their play against Thailand on the 15th of August (Tuesday) which will be held the day after tomorrow.
The U-22 Indonesia Football team arrived at the venue around 4.30pm with 20 players while leading the pack, the Head Coach of the Garuda Muda National team, Luis Milla.
Assistant Coach of the Garuda Muda team, Bima Sakti said that the team are doing very well despite some players having slight injuries during practices before arriving in Malaysia. He stated that the Indonesian Football player, Irfan Bachdim, had a slight accident on his ankle but received therapy treatment and is now in good shape for SEA Games Kuala Lumpur 2017.
Despite the refusal of interviews from the local media during the arrival of the Garuda Muda team at KLIA yesterday, the football team kept their guards up and refrained the media from taking photos or videos during the practice session in opposed to wanting to keep their game play strategy unknown till the day of the match starts.
Meanwhile, Bima Sakti expressed his thrillness of having Ezra Walian on the team during practice.
“I am glad Ezra decided to practice with us, the front-liners for the team against Thailand will be determined after our final practice tomorrow, in which will be decided on which player is on full-mode for the match,” said Bima Sakti.
When asked about the final preparations of the team, Bima Sakti answered that the team are on the same goal and target to keep their head focused during the 90-minute duration of the game. He also stated that the players are in boost mode as wanting to create victory in accordance to Indonesia’s Independence Day that will be held this 17th August.
19-year-old Ezra Walian is a Dutch born Indonesian professional footballer who is currently in the West Ham United team when he was given his first call-up by Indonesia head coach, Luis Milla for a friendly against Myanmar on 21st March this year. He made his debut for Indonesia after coming on as a substitute in the start of second half of the match. By Fazlin Zulkifli
