Indonesian newspaper disappointed as home team at risk of early elimination at SEA Games

(Dan Tri) - The media of the archipelago nation expressed great disappointment when the defending SEA Games champion, U22 Indonesia, lost to U22 Philippines and is at risk of being eliminated early in the group stage.

U22 Philippines defeated U22 Indonesia 1-0

"SEA Games: Indonesia U22 team recreates bitter history from 30 years ago", CNN Indonesia headlined about the home team's 0-1 loss to the Philippines U22 in the second match of Group C of the 33rd SEA Games men's football at the 700th Anniversary Stadium (Chiangmai) on the evening of December 8.

As the reigning champions of the tournament, the U22 Indonesia team was expected to travel to Thailand to defend their title. But a big shock came to the "island of thousands" team when they suffered a narrow 0-1 defeat against the U22 Philippines.

This result forced U22 Indonesia to beat U22 Myanmar in the final round and wait for the results of the remaining two groups to hope to win a ticket to the semi-finals as the second-placed team with the best record.

However, this possibility is considered unlikely as U22 Vietnam is currently the second-placed team with the best performance with 3 points thanks to the victory over U22 Laos in the opening match.

"The defeat in the opening match has repeated the bitter and disappointing history of Indonesia at the 1995 SEA Games, also held in Thailand. The defeat in the opening match prevented Indonesia from reaching the semi-finals, when it also lost to Vietnam in the final match.

U22 Indonesia (white shirt) unexpectedly lost to U22 Philippines in the opening match of Group C of SEA Games 33 (Photo: Bola).

Will the failure of 30 years ago be repeated? The answer will come on December 11 when the match between U22 Vietnam and U22 Malaysia will have results," CNN Indonesia emphasized in the content section.

"After losing to the Philippines, the U22 Indonesian team immediately shifted their focus to the match with Myanmar," Bola also headlined about the home team's disappointing loss.

"As the defending champions, this result naturally attracted considerable attention from the Indonesian public. The players and coaching staff immediately took action to re-evaluate their performance in order to regain the team's best form.

The situation in the group stage also became more complicated when Indonesia no longer had the right to decide for itself when it had to depend on the match between U22 Vietnam and U22 Malaysia in the remaining group stage," commented Bola newspaper.

The Indonesian newspaper also quoted coach Indra Sjafri's statement after the loss: "Maybe I focused more on winning the match against Myanmar, because winning is very important. In the current situation, we no longer have the right to decide when we have to wait for the result of the match between Vietnam and Malaysia.

But the important thing now is how we prepare to win the second match against Myanmar."

Watch SEA Games 33, side by side with the Vietnamese Sports Delegation, most fully onFPT Play, at: http://fptplay.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/bao-indonesia-that-vong-khi-doi-nha-co-nguy-co-bi-loai-som-o-sea-games-20251209074410990.htm