RI SOCCER TEAM LEAVES FOR BRISBANE

Jakarta, Feb 25 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian senior soccer team was scheduled to leave for Brisbane, Australia on Friday (Feb 25) night to face Australian team in the last match of the Asia Cup qualifying group in 2011.

Chief coach of the national soccer team, Benny Dolo had called 20 players for the match which will take place Wednesday (March 3) afternoon in Brisbane.

"We only bring 19 players," Benny said here on Thursday, adding that Ricardo Salampessy might not joint the team.

The 19 players are Markus Horison Ririhina, Charis Yulianto, Abdulmushafry Talaohu, Ponaryo Astaman, Ferry Rotinsulu, Budi Sudarsono Syaifulloh, Ismet Sofyan, Syamsul Bachri, Firman Utina, Hariono, Arif Suyono, Bambang Pamungkas, Muhammad Ridwan, Eka Ramdhani, Isnan Ali, Nova Arianto, Maman Abdurachman, Saktiawan Sinaga, Marthen Christian Worabai.

In this group qualifying, Australian team was ranked top followed by Kuwait, Oman and Indonesia which has no longer a chance. Australia only needs a draw to secure its position to the round-finals in Qatar.

Indonesian national team was defeated after in the fifth game gave up tragically from Oman 1-2 in last January 6, 2010 at Bung Karno main stadium in Jakarta.

With the result, the national team only recorded three scores from three times of draws and two loses.

This is the first failure after the Indonesia team reached the Asian Cup finals in 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2007.

In the meantime, Oman`s opportunity to the final game is wide open if it can defeat Kuwait. Oman versus Kuwait was slated to be held in Muscat.