Coach Shin Tae-yong when he was leading the Indonesian team
Photo: AFP
Shin Tae-yong's Unfinished Revolution in Indonesia
After the Indonesian national team failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, Bola columnist Gatot Susetyo highlighted this as "the peak of the national football's disorientation", after it began to go astray since replacing coach Shin Tae-yong with coach Patrick Kluivert in January 2025.
In 2019, coach Shin Tae-yong was appointed by the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) as head coach of the Indonesian national team with the mission of bringing the archipelago team to success at the Asian and world levels, helping Tim Garuda (the nickname of the Indonesian team) continuously improve its ranking on the FIFA rankings.
One of the highlights of the 1970-born coach was saying goodbye to a generation of Indonesian players who were no longer able to develop, and steadfastly mixing some hard-working veteran players with young players with great potential, despite harsh criticism from all sides.
"Coach Shin Tae-yong is considered a failure because he has not won any titles in his five years leading Indonesia. But many people do not realize that he is actually building a solid foundation for the team, slowly but surely improving Indonesia's FIFA ranking," the article commented.
Indonesia (white) in the loss to the Vietnamese team at the AFF Cup 2024
Photo: Independence
Shin Tae-yong's rejuvenation project bore fruit when Indonesia U23 reached the semi-finals of the U23 Asian Cup, almost winning a ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics when losing 0-1 to Guinea where many fans believed the French referee made a mistake.
The Tim Garuda team made history by reaching the round of 16 of the 2023 Asian Cup, then participating in the 3rd qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup with gradually improving results - along with naturalized stars with Indonesian blood brought in by PSSI such as Mees Hilgers, Kevin Diks and Eliano Reijnders or before that, captain Jay Idzes...
But the defeat against China and Japan in the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, along with Tim Garuda and many U.23 players not being able to pass the group stage of the 2024 AFF Cup, has been the end of coach Shin Tae-yong and his time-consuming youth promotion project.
The train lost control.
A big name from the Netherlands, Coach Patrick Kluivert, appeared at the same time that PSSI began to feel disoriented when the goal of participating in the 2026 World Cup was reduced in urgency, the phrases "improving FIFA rankings" or "Indonesia is breaking through to the Asian and world level" were no longer mentioned.
Indonesia has become much stronger thanks to its rich source of naturalized players.
Photo: Minh Tu
In fact, Indonesia's strength was further strengthened with new naturalized players such as Ole Romeny, Miliano Jonathans, Joey Pelupessy, Dean James and Mauro Zijlstra, but "lost control" when coach Kluivert experimented at the wrong time in the decisive round, leading to losses to Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
"PSSI has been disoriented at the end of the third qualifying round since Patrick Kluivert and his teammates joined the Indonesian team. They lost their direction and important mission at the Asian and global level," said football expert Gusnul Yakin.
This veteran football expert from Malang believes that Indonesian football "lost control" from the failure of U.20 Indonesia under coach Indra Sjafri at the 2024 AFC U-20 Championship, coach Gerald Vanenburg led U.23 Indonesia to decline at home in the 2025 Southeast Asian U-23 Championship and the 2026 AFC U-23 Championship qualifiers.
Coach Kluivert is unclear about his future in Indonesia.
Photo: Reuters
"In my coaching experience, it is very difficult to change the mindset and personality that have been ingrained in a player for many years. Coach Shin Tae-yong has honed his skills and "brainwashed" Indonesia with his warrior style of play for five years. But the players cannot change their playing habits in such a short time, with a new coach," he explained.
Hope still remains for Indonesian football. Coach Nova Arianto hopes to ease the pain of defeat when he leads Indonesia U17 to the 2025 U17 World Cup in Qatar in early November, while Indonesia will need to stand up and restore honor at the 2027 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia.
"Our hopes are placed on the Indonesia U.17 team and the 2027 Asian Cup. Hopefully, these two events will restore the prestige of Indonesian football, which was once respected at the Asian level under Shin Tae-yong," Gusnul Yakin concluded.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bao-indonesia-chi-thang-pssi-mat-phuong-huong-duong-nhien-tan-vo-giac-mo-world-cup-185251013184049244.htm
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