The Syrian division swept aside Maldives in a stunning 4-0 victory to seal their place in the main round of the 2023 Asian Cup. After the match, Maldives manager Koopman recognized his team's performance. He said, "I am satisfied with the players and look forward to a better performance in the next match against Syria."
Looking back at the match, the Maldives were quite impressive in the first 30 minutes of the match before Syria's Mawas broke through. Koopman confessed, "It was a very challenging game. There were many objective reasons why we lost, but I don't want to emphasize too much on those. It must be said that we had only nine training sessions in total before the match and the Maldives national team had not played any official match for a year and a half due to the suspension of all sports activities in the country for the past six weeks. I think this is an acceptable result, the Syrian team was clearly better than us and they gave all their efforts on the pitch to win. Starting tomorrow, we will prepare for the next match. We always emphasize, 'we are a team' and we will be more united and give more to prepare for the next game. The next game is against China, which is also a strong team, and we will give our best for the next challenge."
Koopman, 65, was the coach of China's Shenyang Jinde team from 2005 to 2006. Speaking about the Chinese national soccer team, Koopman said bluntly: "If the Chinese national soccer team wants to make progress, they have to make changes. What I'm trying to say is that it's not possible to change everything overnight, and it's not possible to 'buy soccer with money'. There are many soccer academies in China, but what is more important for the Chinese national football team is to give more opportunities to young players to have more games. Especially give them opportunities in key positions on the field, such as striker, midfield organizer or winger positions, so that young players can grow up and then, only then, can we harvest the ideal players in the coming years."
Kuperman also emphasized, "Many countries invest huge amounts of money in soccer, but it doesn't allow soccer to develop because many young players sit on the bench and they can't grow, they have to play and participate in matches! I remember when I coached Shenyang in 2005, there were many young players in the team, but they all played in matches, and then 3 of them made it to the national team. But unfortunately, the Chinese national soccer team does not continue to give opportunities to young players, there are too many Brazilian players entering the Chinese national soccer team, and I don't think this is a solution. Also, there is a lack of encouragement for young players."
The Maldives will face China in their next match, to which Kuperman said, "What really reflects the strength of the Chinese team should be the matches against teams of equal strength. Right now, China has three games left against the Philippines, our team, and Syria. However, soccer matches sometimes have surprises, and you have to get your team up and into the game to go for the win!"
