Steven Danis
Football Tribe Indonesia
Under the stewardship of coach Fachri Husaini, most of this current team competed at a U-16 level at the AFF and AFC competitions in previous years. The PSSI believes that this team will do their best in AFF U-19 championships. Fachri himself wants to forget their failure last season and will be seeking for another trophy in this level, outside Indonesia.
Playing in Group A, Indonesia will not face the hosts Vietnam, current champions Malaysia and the most successful side Thailand; a bonus for the young Garuda. However, Indonesia needs to be focused on themselves, and do their best to go through to the semi-final. They have also had good friendly matches with local clubs from Liga 3 to prepare for this tournament.
This is fascinating to see how Coach Fachri combines the boys who already play under him with the U-16 team and trained in England for the last six months with the new faces that were selected through the junior league.
Player to Watch:
Beckham Putra Nugraha, 17, Central/Attacking Midfielder – After winning the U-18 Liga 1 2018 with Persib Bandung as the league’s top scorer, Beckham joined the senior side one year ahead. He even made a debut in the Piala Indonesia and already scored a goal in that competition. Even the managerial change from Miljan Radovic to Rene Alberts didn’t affect him a lot, as he already made his league debut in the 2019 season. Now it’s a good time for him to be not only a general on the midfield but also the team’s goalscorer when Amiruddin Bagus or Sutan Zico can’t.