JAKARTA - Indonesia captain Ponaryo Astaman has urged Indonesian fans to show up in numbers at the Gelaro Bung Karno stadium on Tuesday when they take on Bahrain in their Group D opener in this year's AFC Asian Cup finals.

The inspirational midfielder will be playing his second AFC Asian Cup campaign after he played in the 2004 competition in China and scored the winner in Indonesia's 2-1 win against Qatar.

Speaking at the official press-conference before the match, Astaman said that fans support in necessary if they want to have a bright start to their 2007 AFC Asian Cup campaign.

"I invite all our fans to come to the stadium on Tuesday," said the 27-year-old, who plies his trade with Arema Malang. "I want also to ask them to wear the red and white colors and try their best to help and motivate the team in order to win."

Astaman explained the difference between Bahrain and Indonesia and said that their physical presence could be an advantage for Bahrain.

"The difference between Bahrain and Indonesia is the height as their players are slightly taller than us and it will give them slight advantage on us," explained Astaman.

"However, as there are negatives there are other positives of being short and I'm sure that we can find a way to try to make it difficult for Bahrain to beat us on Tuesday," he added.

Astaman is keen to follow fellow co-hosts Vietnam and Thailand after the duo secured good starts with a victory and draw against UAE and Iraq respectively.

"The big evidence of the physical difference is what we saw in the two matches for the other co-hosts," he added. "Thailand and Vietnam players are more like Indonesians but they had good start against Arab teams.

"We hope we can have a good start like Vietnam and I hope that it will inspire us to get a win."
When asked about the target that was set by the PSSI President in the tournament as Nurdin Halid said that Indonesia's goal is to reach the quarter-finals, Astaman said that they will try their best to achieve that.

"All of us are participating teams and we have to play hard whatever the target is," he said. "We will play hard to achieve that target." Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 12:57 PM