September 4, 2004

A confident Peter Withe believes that he can lead the Indonesia national team to greater heights by changing the attitude of his new charges & building a winning attitude in the team.

Withe, who officially took over as head coach of the team last week, leads his side for the first time in an international friendly against Singapore at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

Despite his brief time with the team, the former Thailand coach is pleased with what has been accomplished thus far.

He said he had been in Indonesia since March 1 but was working with the U20s until 10 days ago when he took over the senior side & despite the limited time with the players he believes it was beneficial for them as they are working at a high tempo & it must have been higher that what they have been used to.

Withe who had watched the Indonesia team in action during the Asian Cup in July believes that they can learn much from their experience in China, where they were eliminated in the first round after a 3-1 defeat to Bahrain.

He believed they should have been disappointed with that result as it was a game that they could have drawn especially as they had done well to beat Qatar in their first match.

It proved to him that the Indonesia team had the talents & qualities but the biggest thing is to change the attitude & mentality of the players so that they will be hungry for success.