saco-indonesia.com, Manager-coach Persebaya, Rahmad Darmawan telah menekankan agar pasukannya berhati-hati terhadap calon lawan mereka, Putra Samarinda (Pusam). Kedua tim tersebut akan bertemu di Stadion Gelora Bung Tomo (GBT), Rabu (5/2) besok sore.
Menurut Rahmad, Pusam didukung dengan materi pemain yang masih muda, bertenaga dan juga punya kecepatan.
"Di sana ada pemain-pemain yang pernah saya asuh, seperti Joko Sasongko, Bayu Gatra dan Engelbert Sani," ujar Rahmad.
"Mereka adalah pemain-pemain yang telah memiliki kualitas dan cepat," imbuhnya.
Bayu, Joko dan Engel bukan satu-satunya pemain yang harus diwaspadai oleh kubu Persebaya. Sebab Pesut Mahakam, julukan Pusam juga punya tiga pemain lain dengan karakter menyerang nan lincah, yakni Loudry Setiawan, Sultan Samma dan Radiansyah.
Untuk lini depan, tim besutan Mundari Karya ini telah memiliki salah satu pemain yang produktif mencetak gol, yakni Ilija Spasojevic. Dalam debutnya lawan PSM Makassar, Spaso sukses untuk mencetak satu gol sekaligus menghindarkan Pusam dari kekalahan.
Untuk dapat meredam kecepatan pemain Pusam, Rahmad telah meminta dua fullback-nya, yakni Hasim Kipuw dan Leo Saputra bermain lebih taktis dan telaten menghadapi licinnya para pemain Pesut Mahakam. "Blocking di kanan dan kiri harus lebih sabar," tutur Rahmad.
Pada pertandingan besok, Rahmad nampaknya belum bisa untuk menurunkan Ricardo Salampessy dan Dedi Kusnandar. Pasalnya, kondisi kedua pemain ini belum 100 persen. Sebagai ganti dari Salampessy, Rahmad telah mempercayakan Ambrizal untuk berduet dengan OK John.
Sedangkan Manahati Lestusen dipersiapkan sebagai opsi bila Dedi benar-benar tak bisa dimainkan. Untuk menyokong striker tunggal Emmanuel "Pacho" Kenmogne, Rahmad memainkan trio M Ilham, Alfin Tuasalamony dan kapten tim, Greg Nwokolo.
"Kita ingin menyapu bersih kemenangan pada dua pertandingan di kandang sendiri. Saya harap para pemain dapat menunjukkan performa lebih baik jika dibandingkan dengan pertandingan pertama," tutup asisten manajer Persebaya, Amran Said Ali.
Editor : Dian Sukmawati
RD WASPADAI KECEPATAN PESUT MAHAKAM
BEIJING (AP) — The head of Taiwan's Nationalists reaffirmed the party's support for eventual unification with the mainland when he met Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of continuing rapprochement between the former bitter enemies.
Nationalist Party Chairman Eric Chu, a likely presidential candidate next year, also affirmed Taiwan's desire to join the proposed Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank during the meeting in Beijing. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and doesn't want the island to join using a name that might imply it is an independent country.
Chu's comments during his meeting with Xi were carried live on Hong Kong-based broadcaster Phoenix Television.
The Nationalists were driven to Taiwan by Mao Zedong's Communists during the Chinese civil war in 1949, leading to decades of hostility between the sides. Chu, who took over as party leader in January, is the third Nationalist chairman to visit the mainland and the first since 2009.
Relations between the communist-ruled mainland and the self-governing democratic island of Taiwan began to warm in the 1990s, partly out of their common opposition to Taiwan's formal independence from China, a position advocated by the island's Democratic Progressive Party.
Despite increasingly close economic ties, the prospect of political unification has grown increasingly unpopular on Taiwan, especially with younger voters. Opposition to the Nationalists' pro-China policies was seen as a driver behind heavy local electoral defeats for the party last year that led to Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou resigning as party chairman.
Taiwan party leader affirms eventual reunion with China