Indonesia is still too far behind the Japanese team.
Both Indonesia and Japan have completed their goals early in the third qualifying round of the Asian region. The "Samurai Blue" have secured a ticket to the final round, while the archipelago team has also secured a place in the fourth qualifying round to continue their search for a chance to attend the 2026 World Cup.
The Japanese team showed that the class gap was too far compared to the Indonesian team.
Photo: Reuters
The meeting between the two teams is also to test the current progress of the Indonesian team against Japan. In particular, the fans of the archipelago country recalled the 1-1 draw between the Vietnamese team and Japan in the final round of the 3rd qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup (in March 2022). Thereby, they hope that the home team, with its current progress and quality naturalized players, will find a victory against the Japanese team.
However, the reality shows that the gap is still too far. The Japanese team, with only the return of two top stars, Wataru Endo (Liverpool FC) and Takefusa Kubo (Sociedad), has created too much difference against the naturalized players of Indonesia. In which, Endo plays in his familiar central midfield position, while Kubo plays with Daichi Kamada (currently playing for Crystal Palace FC) in attack.
On the Indonesian side, coach Kluivert made five changes from the win over China on June 5, with Mees Hilgers, Kevin Diks, Dean James, Beckham Putra and Yance Sayuri starting. The archipelago team also played with a large defensive strategy (5-4-1), with only striker Ole Romeny in the front line to take advantage of counterattacks.
Indonesian players (in white) can only run after their Japanese opponents.
Photo: Reuters
This style of play was soon ruined, as the superior Japanese team quickly took control of the game with quick, high-speed, precise and spread-out passes across the pitch.
Within the first 20 minutes of the match, the intense pressure from the Japanese team completely broke down the Indonesian players. Some players had to leave the field early due to overload, such as Kevin Diks.
With such an overwhelming advantage, the Japanese players easily poured a rain of goals into the net of goalkeeper Emil Audero (Indonesia). Kamada scored a double in the 15th and 45+6th minutes, and Kubo scored in the 19th minute to end the first half with a score of 3-0. In the second half, Ryoya Morishita (minute 55), Shuto Machino (58) and Hosoya Mao (80) scored 3 more goals to help the Japanese team crush their opponents Indonesia with a score of 6-0.
After a heavy defeat against Japan, the Indonesian team will still have a lot of work to do to compete with other strong opponents in the fourth qualifying round in hopes of winning a ticket to the 2026 World Cup.
Besides, they have not been able to surpass the Vietnamese team in the FIFA rankings this coming July. But the possibility is that they will significantly narrow the gap thanks to the points added from the win over China (15.05 points), while losing to Japan, the Indonesian team only lost 3.42 points.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhat-ban-de-bep-doi-indonesia-trong-con-mua-ban-thang-khac-biet-dang-cap-qua-lon-185250610194216995.htm
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