2024-07-14 03:11:22
New player Mateo Kocijan during an internal Persib game match at Arcamanik Field, Bandung City, Friday (12/7/2024). Photo: sources for JPNN
jpnn.com – Persib Bandung held an internal game session at the training held at the Arcamanik Sport Jabar Field, Bandung City, Friday (13/7/2024).
In the internal game, coach Bojan Hodak divided the players into two teams, blue and gray.
The players looked enthusiastic and serious about the match even though it was just a game.
New signing Mateo Kocijan was involved in the internal game. The Croatian played his full game with the blue team.
Hodak also gave an assessment of Kocijan’s first appearance with Persib. According to Hodak, his protégé still needs to adapt to the Indonesian weather.
“You can see that the difference in weather means he needs time to adapt. He also hasn’t played for several months, so he still needs to get back to his playing rhythm,” Hodak said.
Mateo last played for Albanian club FK Partizani in the middle of last season. However, according to Hodak, Mateo has not lost his touch.
“Slowly, he is always in the right position tactically. He also defends very well,” he said.
According to Hodak, Mateo still needs to be pushed to be able to show his best performance.
“It’s the same as Dedi (Kusnandar), he has a good shot, so I just need to encourage him to try more shots,” said the Croatian tactician.
Furthermore, Hodak also appreciated his players who maintained their physical condition during the long break at the end of last season. This was evident in the internal game, where not a single player was injured.
Hodak explained that this internal game was necessary to maintain the rhythm of the match.
“So far everything is okay, the most important thing is that there are no injuries and both teams are playing compactly. That means that slowly everything is getting more cohesive, the new players still need a little time, but everything will be fine,” Hodak said.
Not all players were involved in the internal game. Brazilian duo David da Silva and Ciro Alves trained separately with fitness coach Miro Petric.
The two attackers had just had a long air journey after returning from their home countries.
“They just arrived two days ago, so it would be too risky to force them to play. You can see that they have been doing physical training and in one or two weeks they will be ready,” he said. (mcr27/jpnn)
This is how the Persib coach assessed Mateo Kocijan’s performance in the team’s internal game session.