Indonesian Football : 6 Minutes of Injury Time

There is nothing like a dream to create the future — Victor Hugo

The dream was floating away. Indonesian Under-19 football team was hardly beaten twice by Uzbekistan U-19 by 1–3 and the young kangaroos, Australia by 0–1 in AFC U-19 Championship in Myanmar, which held in October 2014. More than 42 million people in Indonesia put their hope so high in Evan Dimas and team by at least advanced into the semifinal, the minimum stage so the team would be qualifying in the U-20 World Cup.

But it was over. There are no things bitter than accepting such reality. We could not turn back time. We only had one chance and it’s over. So who should take the blame? The coach, Indra Sjafri? The team captain, Evan Dimas? The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI)? The ministry of Youth and Sports? Or should we put the blame in the official shampoo of the Indonesian team?

It would be so childish if we put someone to blame. For me, there is only one to blame. Us.

When I went to work few days ago, something comes to my mind. Why the Indonesian football team, whether it is U-19, U-21, U-23, or the senior team, could not achieve anything in some local ASEAN or Asian championships? What is the real problem of this situation? What can we do to improve things?

My lecturer back in the college years once told me that, if you want to solve a solution, define the root cause or the root problem. Defining the exact root cause would eliminate the problem, while solving a problem would not eliminate the root cause. In the management study, there are plenty methods we can use to define the root problem, such as fish bone diagram, current reality tree, ANOVAs, etc.

Defining problem can be started with finding the gap between reality and expectation (or target with actual result), answering of why’s problem exist, the data should be fact based, and create priority in solving the problem. How we solve the problem? We have to ask why and why, and justify with data about:
- What are the causes at each level of why?
- Where are they occurred?
- How many times do they occur?
- How big their impact to the problem?

I am using a fish bone diagram in order to find the root cause of the problem. First thing first, i have to define the problem. As mentioned in several newspapers, we all heard that the minimum target of U-19 in Myanmar was to advance to semifinal, which would open the chance to participate in world cup U-20. The problem has been identified, and it’s time to define the root cause of the problem in the fish bone diagram.

From the fishbone diagram above, there are four main points that I would like to explain:

1. Manpower
Third-grader students already known that there are eleven players in football. Only eleven man, and we have to pick crème de la crème, the best of the best players as starting lineup. That was the first issue. After that, question arises, how do we select the best players? It’s easy. Just imagine a few years ago, why would Frank Rijkaard or Pep Guardiola put Messi on the Barcelona’s top eleven man? Skills, it just simple as that. Dribbling, shooting accuracy, passing, ball control, set piece, aggression, and other skills mentioned in FIFA 2015 video game, it determine what kind of players we needed in our team.

Have you watched the match Indonesia U-19 against Australia U-19? Did you notice the different between the both team? My first impression when I saw the Australian boys I wondered, how could a body of 19-year-old boy seem like a 25-year-old muscled man? Jason Stirilio, Skepatis, and several of the players have wonderful body, and they can achieve it in young age. I would say, nutrition is important for football players, because it has significant effect for body charge while playing, better stamina, and also a good height. What you eat is what you get. I’m not saying the Indonesian team was having lack of sufficient nutrition. I realize, in our daily life, the nutrition is still a problem for the government.

According to FIFA’s report about nutrition for football, the foods and drinks that players choose to consume can affect how they perform in sport and help them to stay fit and healthy. Attention to detail can make huge difference. Diet affects performance. Every player is different, and a good diet can help support consistent intensive training. Players must be aware of what foods they should choose to meet their carbohydrate needs, how much should be eaten, and when these foods should be eaten. A varied diet containing everyday foods will generally supply more than enough protein. A varied diet that meets the energy needs and is based largely on nutrient-rich choices such as vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, cereals, lean meats, fish and diary food should ensure an adequate intake of vitamins and minerals.

In Indonesia, the new order era in Soeharto regime most notable jargon, 4 sehat 5 sempurna, has been superseded by Pedoman Gizi Seimbang as per UU Kesehatan No. 36 tahun 2009. The concept is pretty similar with previous government program, the foods are made up of food groups, which are:
- Carbohydrates for energy, which found in bread, rice, pasta, and cereals.
- Protein for growth and recovery that found in meat, fish, beans, nuts, etc. Protein is important to rebuild muscles when damaged.
- Fat for protect the heart and maintain healthy cholesterol levels, found in meat, butter, dairy, oils, etc.
- Water for hydration

But, the different is, pedoman gizi seimbang was taken variation in foods & vegetables, physical activity, sanitary, and ideal body weight as a consideration. A healthy meals should consist of 2/3 whole grains, fruits and vegetables, 1/3 low fat meat, dairy, beans, or other protein rich foods. In conclusion, how can we select best player if they don’t have enough nutrition for a world-cup national team? Do the people in Indonesia ever think about their nutrition, when a healthy foods cost more for them? Or Do they just thinking about how to avoid to get fat and neglecting the importance of nutrition? In order to solve this issue, i would recommend PSSI to hire strict nutricionist, Dr. Tan Shot Yen, to become a consultant in Indonesian National Team.

The third point, psychology of the players. Football is not just about how much the player scored in the opponent’s net. It covers on how to get back up when losing, and change the pressured situation into a winning goal. How to grow positive traits, such as perseverance, determination, and strive for winning mentality in our national football team is also important.
Gary Neville has five steps to foster the winning mindset:
- Winning mentality can grow inside the player. The way to grow such mentality is to surround yourself with people who has highest standard for winning
- The coach needs to set an atmosphere for a winning mentality
- We can’t win a match forever. The right mindset is to believe in self ability and confidence to deal with difficult moments
- The captain has to be a leaders in the dressing room, to set an example on how to behave, act, and train
- Recruit winners. The right recruited players that have winning mentality will grow around big players.

Moreover, mental toughness is more than just mentally sane. According to “Mental Toughness Training Manual”, wrote by Lefkowits et al, it’s also physical and emotional. In order to be mentally tough on the football field, players must have talent and be in peak physical condition. Jim Loehr (1993) describes four emotional markers of mental toughness:
a. Emotional Flexibility: The ability to handle different situations in a balanced or non defensive manner.
b. Emotional Responsiveness: Players are emotionally engaged in the competitive situation, not withdrawn.
c. Emotional Strength: The ability to handle great emotional force and sustain fighting spirit no matter what the circumstances.
d. Emotional Resiliency: Being able to handle setbacks and recovering quickly from them.

Worldskills UK defined 4C of mental toughness, which consists of:

1. Commitment — Do you make promises? Do you keep those promises?
2. Control — Do you believe you can do it? Do you keep calm when doing it?
3. Challenge — Are you motivated to do it?
4. Confidence — Do you have the ability to do it even when things get difficult?

Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you could call it ‘character in action — Vince Lombardi

2. Internal Team
I believe that in order to achieve target, the condition of the organization also play role for success. How well the manager manages the organization, leadership, teamwork, match strategy is important.

Have you ever see the movie, “Moneyball”? Brad Pitt plays as the baseball team manager, who led his team, Oakland Athletics winning 20 consecutive games, an American league record. The unique part of this movie is when he selects players in transfer window using a sabermetric method. Despite implementing traditional scouting, which relying based on intuition in selecting players, the sabermetric methods allowing the scouts to monitor the on base percentage (in football, the statistics counts how many times players complete passing, completed dribbling, etc, you can see this stats in FIFA 2015). His assistant, Jonah Hill, advised the manager statically which one is the best players for the team. I don’t know whether Indonesian football association of Indonesian Super League (ISL) has adopted this method. Statistics is important in order to monitor the player’s progress. This method allowed us to track how many attempt pass has been completed / miss, shoot on target / off target, tackles made, etc. Statistics helps us to quantify the skills mentioned earlier.

The other point is about strategy. Have you ever seen the European championship match Chelsea against FC Barcelona in 2012? The match was played in Barcelona’s home. Did you see what did Roberto di Matteo’s strategy? He had choose to applying ultra-defensive strategy, which known as “park-the-bus” strategy. He knew that Barcelona has a very aggressive offense strategy, and he realize that the team was playing in Barcelona’s home. The best way to win the match was relying in counter attack strategy. Knowing the strength of the enemy and maximizing efforts of our team, sometimes is the best way to choose a path in scoring goals in the match.

Scheduling a sparring game against the team who has similar characteristic to the future opponents is also important. A friendly match is costly, and it is important to manage on what kind of team should be invited in the friendly match (it should not be too weak for the team), selecting which stadium to be played, and in what kind of geographical conditions the team are facing. Why those kinds of things are important? It all ends up with the budget. Flying a team to other continents to play a friendly match is extremely costly. Just think about how much it costs for an airplane ticket, the accommodation, lunch, rent of a stadium, and other petty cash. The more a friendly match is played does not have a positive correlation to achievements. Remember the Pareto’s Law, it’s about how we maximizing 20% efforts in order to achieve 80% results.

Last, it’s about teamwork. Manager was not paid to formulate an effective strategy. He is also a leader in the team, and he is responsible to foster a winning mental in the team, and building teamwork. The team is consists of an adolescent that comes from many different backgrounds. Teamwork can be built in off the courts. Conducting an outbound, laser tags, or other activities together can foster communication among players.

3. Environment
The effectiveness of the national team is reflected in the local tournament. Indonesian Super League (ISL) is the highest level tournament in Indonesia. The major challenges that we face is Indonesian is the most populated Muslim in the world and the unique geographical area of Indonesia.

As a densely populated country, majority of the Indonesians are Muslim. It means, they adhere to the Rukun Islam and other guidance stipulated in the Holy Koran. The challenge comes when Ramadan arrives. It means the Muslim have to fasting in one month. Ramadan comes not in the fixed Anno Domini (AD) calendar. It can comes in December, and the next year it will come faster in the late November, and goes on. In order to respect the holy month of Ramadan, usually the league is postponed until Syawal comes. This makes quite harder in scheduling a match, compared to the European league which has a pretty regular calendar in holiday, and other religious holiday. This doesn’t make Indonesian League looks bad, and actually that is the challenge. We should prepare for five years look ahead planning, to maximizing a little time in one season without disrupting any religious matters.

When we were a child, we were told by out teacher that Indonesia has advantage to be located between 2 oceans and 2 continents, and our unique position in the earth which makes this country crossed by equator line. Unfortunately, in terms of football this was a huge burden for local football team. Transportation still becomes a problem. If the league apply home and away match, just imagine how much it cost for a team from Aceh would visit to the team from Papua? The two-way airplane ticket is too costly, and remember the team does not fly the starting eleven only, the also flew the staff, medical team, substitutes, etc. Also, don’t forget about the hotel when the team sleeps, and every detail of accommodation checklists. The first president, Ir. Soekarno, once dreamed that Indonesia could conquer aerospace and maritime engineering. He was genius in that time, to know the real problem of Indonesia. Until now, the dream was never been realized. Some of the people in Java were lucky that the Dutch colonial had built the railways. Other than that, transportation still a problem. That makes a difference if we talking about Dutch’s Eredivisie, England’s Premier League, Germany’s Bundesliga, and other league in Europe. European country has advantage to be located in one land. The transportation means is well settled, so two teams can play home and away match only with buses and trains. That’s why the management of transportation in Indonesia needs to be fixed. There must be a round table discussion between the Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Maritime matters, Ministry of Transportation, and Industrial Ministry, to find the solutions. Ups, forgive me, i think those ministers are quite busy in building their own brand image via their so-called “Blusukan”.

Other than two problems mention above, I think the contract management of a player also plays a significant role to create a better, competitive league. It is often we found a story that the player’s wages is deferred or not being paid by a football club related to their finance problems. Contract is important. Players demand a security, and it affects their morale if they were not paid. Please remember, those players not a robot, they were humans too, which have family to be fed and bills to be paid.

4. Others
Another important point is regarding education. Appropriate education is important, especially for a young players so they not only good in the field but outside the field they can be a part of civilized community. Language course is important too, if they players have dreams to play abroad. The current problem why young Indonesian players could not be hired by the football team in Asia is that they have limited knowledge in foreign language. They can be taught, however, for an English course as minimum requirement. Another option, such as TOEFL certification, can be applied as a side course to the players in their local clubs. This is important, so the players can easily communicate and understand the direction from foreign coach in the national team. Acquiring such language skills can also maximizing chance to play abroad, in Malaysia league for example. If we want to succeed in the world level, we have to conquer South East Asia first, then to the Asian level before competing in the world level.

The Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) has to prepare a long term strategy if we want to escalate the Indonesian National team to the higher level. First of all, they have to set what kind of objectives that they want to achieve. The objectives have to be realistic and can be measured. After that, they can prepare program and budget on how to achieve the target. I would like to emphasize, it’s not impossible to participate in the world cup. It will be a long road, and it’s not going to be easy but it is plausible. Investing a number of budgets in youth player development is one of the best options to be considered, because the future of the Indonesian football is on their hands. And of course, all of these must be sterilized from any political intentions of the government’s public officials.

Finally, the reason why Indonesian Football cannot be as advanced as European football is in Indonesia, football could not be a promising source of income. Football is a very risk occupation. If a players out of the field due to his very serious injury, the player cannot play football anymore. Let’s say a 32-year-old footballer have a bad injury in his groin and the doctors says that he cannot play anymore. It’s quite a risk to change his occupation to another field, due to the early late age, and with no proper education and other skills exacerbated his condition. Not only because of the risk of injury problems, but also the football players have short life span. The maximum age of a player to fit for play is 35 years old. Coming into 30 years old, the skill of a player begin to deteriorating.

Besides that, there will be a tight competition with the wave of young players to safe a place in the starting eleven. The condition is become really hard if the player have a family. Just imagine, how much is the cost of a house, children’s education, and other needs to be fulfilled. If the player is not so outstanding as another football star, it’s quite a struggle to live as a football player.

Conclusion
What I would like to say in my writing is we should solve these problems together, because there are so many factors and after mapping it with the fish bone diagram, it comes out that the problem is interdisciplinary.

I am writing this article because I am concerned with the Indonesian football. To the people who like to criticize, I just want to ask, what have you done anyway? Did you stopped watching when Indonesian team is losing and in fact you turned against them? The Indonesian team did not need a coward like you. What they really need is a real support from us, as an Indonesian people.

I hope to the Indonesian engineers, please improve the transportation means in Indonesia, so people can go from Sabang to Marauke with a cheap price. To the nutritionists and the entire health expert, let’s improve the nutrition of Indonesian people together. When it gets better, I hope we can find the tall and strong defender, the fast runner winger, visionary play maker, and a deadly striker. To all public officials out there, please stop any kind of political involvement in the PSSI. Let’s put away our ego in order to achieve success in Indonesian Football.

I do really wish that in the 100 years of Indonesia in 2045, that dream, a dream when our football team can compete in world cup can be fulfilled. Let’s take lessons from any failure occurred in the past. I can only contribute to write my thoughts in this article, and I wish this will make a difference to the Indonesian Football.