Indonesia coach Riedl in spying mission

08-Sep-2010

The draw for the AFF Suzuki Cup is still a week away yet the serious work for South-East Asia's premier football event in December has already started in earnest.

Indonesia coach Alfred Riedl, known for his thoroughness, was in Bangkok on Saturday to run the rule over Bryan Robson's Thailand in their 1-0 friendly win over India.

Riedl has recently replaced Benny Dollo as coach of Indonesia, who lost 3-1 on aggregate to Thailand in the semi-final of the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup.

The highly experienced Austrian was an extremely popular figure during his three spells as coach of Vietnam and took the current AFF Suzuki Cup champions to the last eight of the Asian Cup in 2007.

The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) is doing their bit to help Riedl in the bid to win the AFF Suzuki Cup for the first time and have organised warm-up matches against World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay and Cote d'Ivoire, who also participated in South Africa, on October 9 and October 13 respectively.

For their part, three-time winners Thailand are looking to host Argentina, who bounced back from their World Cup quarter-final loss to Germany with a thumping 4-1 victory over world champions Spain on Tuesday, on October 13 after their home and away matches against Asian Cup-bound India.