It is possible for the Myanmar football team to meet with the host Indonesian national team in the final of the upcoming Indonesia Independence Invitational Cup soccer tournament in Jakarta this week, local 7-Day Sports journal on Monday quoted the Myanmar football team chief coach Falopa as saying.
Only six teams -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesian national, Indonesian U-23, Libya and Myanmar, will compete in the Invitational Cup soccer tournament, and so the Myanmar team has more chance to vie for the trophy with the Indonesian national team in the final, Falopa said.
Myanmar will be in Group A together with Libya and Indonesian national team, and Indonesian U-23, Cambodia and Brunei will be in Group B of the Indonesia Independence Invitational Cup soccer tournament scheduled on Aug. 21-29.
The Myanmar soccer team, which comprises most players from the team competed in the last Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup football tournament, will leave for Jakarta, Indonesia tomorrow to take part in the Invitational Cup.
It will be the second appearance for the Myanmar team under the responsibility of Falopa and also its second international competition in this year.
Myanmar participated in the AFC Challenge Cup football tournament in Hyderabad, India, from July 30 to Aug. 13. The Myanmar team beat Nepal and Sri Lanka 3-0 and 3-1 respectively and lost to DPR Korea 1-0 in Group B. Myanmar was defeated by India 1- 0 in the semifinal and lost again to DPR Korea 4-0 in the third- place playoff.
Brazilian Marcos Antonio Falopa, who is a technical director of the Brazil Coach Football Federation and had worked as a technical director in European, African, Asian and Latin American countries, arrived here again over two weeks ago to coach again the Myanmar national soccer team after reaching agreement with the Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) to extend the contract to rehandle the team.
Falopa, 59, who firstly arrived here in April 2007 for one-year contract agreed with the MFF and returned to Brazil on leave a few days after the 24th SEA Games, could make the Myanmar national team finishing runners-up in both the 39th Merdeka football tournament in Malaysia in August and the 24th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand in December 2007, but failed to make it winning in home and away qualifying matches with China for the 2010 World Cup last year. Myanmar lost to China 7-0 in the away match and 4-0 in the home match.
Myanmar will also compete in two other tournaments this year, the Merdeka Cup in Malaysia in October and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Championship in Thailand and Indonesia in December.
With a glorious history in Asian soccer, Myanmar's national senior team had won five times ASEAN champions from 1965 to 1973 and claimed the Asian Games title in 1966 and 1970.
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)