Recently, coach Simon McMenemy of Indonesia's team announced the list of players preparing for the match against Malaysia and Thailand in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Accordingly, the Scots strategist named 26 players in the list, including 6 naturalized players.
Specifically, naturalized players including defender Otavio Dutra (Persebaya), Victor Igbonefo (PTT Rayong), midfielder Stefano Lilipaly (Bali United) and 3 strikers: Greg Nwokolo (Madura United), Irfan Bachdim (Bali United), Osas Saha (Tira- Persikabo) are all stars competing in the Indonesian National Championship.
As soon as the list of 26 players was announced, coach Simon McMenemy was under great pressure from public opinion. Many opinions say that the 41-year-old "captain" is too favorably affiliated with naturalized players and forgets the local stars.
Explaining the decision to include many naturalized stars in the list of players, Coach McMenemy affirmed that he wanted to help the Indonesian team become an experienced team, which could be "invincible".
He said: "Not that I want to turn the Indonesian DT into a team full of naturalized players. The reason I named 6 naturalized players in the national team is because they have a lot of experience. I also like local players. But Im looking for people who fit the playing style Im building.
At the national team level, we want to win every match. If we can do that, the Indonesian fans will definitely be very happy, the Scot strategist did not hide his intention to make the team from the " archipelago" an unbeaten team.
In fact, with a solid playing style and physical strength, the Indonesian team will be strengthened with the appearance of a pair of naturalized central defenders of nearly 1m90 Otavio Dutra and Victor Igbonefo.
In addition, two Dutch stars Stefano Lilipaly and Irfan Bachdim also promise to bring playing experience to the Indonesian team. Both have played for many years at famous clubs, before being naturalized to play in Indonesia.
Most notably was the appearance of striker Alberto Goncalves. The Brazilian player has a "huge" positive record having played for or played for 20 clubs in his career. Despite being 38 years old, Goncalves has always scored regularly for the teams he plays for.
According to statistics throughout his career, the "veteran" born in the land of Samba has played 461 times at the club level, scoring 261 goals. Although he has only joined the Indonesian national team since 2018, Alberto Goncalves has also shown his ability to score in excess, scoring eight goals in just 8 appearances.
According to the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, Indonesia will meet Malaysia (September 5) and Thailand (September 10) respectively at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. Coach Park Hang-seo and his team will compete with Indonesia on October 15 also at the "fire pan" Gelora Bung Karno.
