April 28 TheStar WITH none wanting to be the second best, the Group B Thomas Cup tie between Indonesia and South Korea on Sunday is expected to be explosive. The winners of the group will avoid meeting Malaysia in the quarter-finals in the bottom half of the knockout draw. The winners will certainly have the easier route to the semi-finals in the top half of the draw, which has defending champions China. Indonesia's assistant manager Luis Pongoh and South Korea's manager Kim Joong-soo both have confidence in their team topping the group. The other team in the group are New Zealand. Luis, who played for Indonesia between 1979 and 1989, said that Indonesia had a team good enough to regain the Cup they last won in 2002. “Our first step is to emerge as the group champions. The runners-up will meet Malaysia. If we have a chance to win, why do we want to lose? It does not matter if we have to meet China in the semi-finals,” said Luis. “We have evaluated our players following some poor results recently. And in the last few weeks, we have worked hard to polish up these players.” The Indonesian team comprise Taufik Hidayat, Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Simon Santoso, Markus Wijanu; Candra Wijaya-Sigit Budiarto, Alven Yulianto-Luluk Hadiyanto and Markis Kidho-Hendra Setiwan. “The odds may be against us but our players have vowed to fight and bring back the Cup,” said Lius. Joong-soo said that the path at the top half of the knockout draw was more inviting. “If we become group champions, we will have easier opponents (most likely Japan) in the quarter-finals. This is what we want to achieve,” he said. However, he said that the absence of Lee Jae-jin, who forms the strongest combination with Jung Jae-jung, because of injury had diluted their strength. “We have five doubles players (Hwang Ji-man, Han Sang-hoon, Jae-jung, Lee Yong-dae and Jung Tae-keuk) and we may form scratch combinations,” said Joong-soo. “But we have good singles players and hopefully, under the new scoring format, our players will do well.” The Korean singles line-up comprise Lee Hyun-il, Shon Seung-mo, Park Sung-hwan and Jang Young-soo.
