Despite complete defeat to Japan, Indonesia's Shin Tae-yong "Our original goal was to be 3rd or 4th There's still hope"
Despite complete defeat to Japan, Indonesia's Shin Tae-yong "Our original goal was to be 3rd or 4th There's still hope"
Blog Article
Indonesian national soccer team coach Shin Tae-yong has failed to lead his team to victory in five matches in the 2026 North and Central American World Cup Asian third round qualifiers, but he has not given up hope.
Indonesia suffered a crushing defeat to Japan 0-4 in the fifth match of Group C in the third round of the Asian qualifiers for the North and Central American World Cup held at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia on the 15th.
Indonesia attacked Japan hard in the beginning of the game, leaving the opponents flustered. However, after that, they found stability and gave up the first goal to Japan, the strongest team in Asia, through an own goal by defender Justin Hubner in the 35th minute of the first half, and then collapsed after giving up two more goals in the first half.
Indonesia has reached the halfway point of the third qualifying round, remaining at the bottom of Group C's six countries without even winning its first game with three draws and two losses (three points).
However, according to Japanese media on the 16th, the new manager still spoke of hope at the post-match press conference.
The new coach first congratulated the Japanese national team and coach Hajime Moriyasu for their victory, and then expressed regret, saying, "It is very regrettable that this result came about despite all the hard work we put into preparing for this match."
"We had a golden opportunity and if we had scored first it might have been a different result," he said. "But I don't want to make excuses for losing."
He then said, "From the start of the third qualifying round, we were 파워볼 aiming for third or fourth place to advance to the playoffs," and emphasized, "There is still hope."
In the third round of the Asian qualifiers for the North and Central American World Cup, where 18 countries are divided into three groups of six countries each, the top two countries from each group will receive direct tickets to the finals.
The six countries that ranked third and fourth will be divided into two groups of three countries each to compete again. The top teams will receive two tickets to the World Cup finals, and the second-place teams will play each other to determine which team will advance to the intercontinental playoffs.
In Group C, Japan (4 wins, 1 draw, 13 points) is currently undefeated and has solidified its lead, while Australia, Saudi Arabia (both 1 win, 3 draws, 1 loss), and China (2 wins, 3 losses) are tied for 2nd to 4th place with 6 points each.
Indonesia, which is in 6th place following Bahrain (1 win, 2 draws, 2 losses, 5 points), is only 3 points behind the teams in 2nd to 4th place.
Of course, in order to advance to 3rd or 4th place and continue the competition for the main tournament as the new manager wishes, Indonesia desperately needs to win the remaining 5 games.
Indonesia will face third-place Saudi Arabia at home on the 19th.
"I still expect our performance to improve. We can show better performance and get better results," the new manager said.