Indonesia Team: Broken World Cup Dream and Unforeseeable Consequences

(Dan Tri) - Indonesia's dream of participating in the 2026 World Cup has gone up in smoke after the defeat to Iraq. This fall could bring unpredictable consequences for Indonesian football.

Wrong move for coach Kluivert?

After Indonesia's defeat to Iraq at King Abdullah Stadium (Saudi Arabia) on the night of October 12, thousands of Indonesian fans lingered for a while. Then, they suddenly chanted the name of coach Shin Tae Yong in unison. It was like an act of protest against coach Kluivert and support for coach Shin to return to lead the team.

Afterwards, the President of the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI), Erick Thohir, was forced to apologize to reassure fans: "We apologize because the dream of attending the World Cup has not yet come true."

The question is whether coach Shin Tae Yong sat on the Indonesian bench in the two matches against Saudi Arabia and Iraq, would the situation be different? It is not easy to answer this question because it did not happen in reality.

Many opinions say that PSSI made a mistake in appointing coach Kluivert (Photo: PSSI).

In pain, people often tend to think about the good things in the past to comfort themselves and avoid reality. The current results prove that PSSI was wrong in hastily appointing coach Patrick Kluivert, but it cannot confirm the remaining proposition, that coach Shin Tae Yong can help Indonesia win a ticket to the World Cup.

PSSI President Erick Thohir is the one responsible for firing coach Shin Tae Yong when things were going well and appointing coach Kluivert, who has continuously failed as a coach and is not knowledgeable about Asian football.

In fact, Coach Kluivert is similar to Coach Troussier. They both want to “breathe life” into modern ball control play to help Indonesian and Vietnamese football go further. However, the mistake is that they are too mechanical, dependent on the playing style, not adapting to the situation. From a certain perspective, Korean coaches like Park Hang Seo or Shin Tae Yong may be more suitable in bringing success (at least in the short term) than their Western colleagues in Southeast Asia.

However, Indonesian football is not only suffering from the tragedy of Coach Kluivert. It seems that they still lack some class to really rise up. The Indonesian national team (led by Coach Kluivert) and the Indonesian U23 team (led by Coach Shin Tae Yong) were both very close to the World Cup or Olympic arena but they ran out of breath at the last minute.

Indonesia U23 defeated South Korea U23 to reach the final. They had 3 chances to qualify for the World Cup but lost to Uzbekistan U23, Iraq U23 and Guinea U23. Similarly, Indonesia also reached the 4th qualifying round of the World Cup but lost to Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

To be fair, Indonesia had two commendable matches. They dared to play fair and chase the score with Saudi Arabia and attacked strongly against Iraq. That is something that no team in Southeast Asia can do in this match.

Although Indonesian fans are “throwing anger” at referee Ma Ning for his controversial decision in the match against Iraq, it cannot erase the fact that Garuda (the nickname of the Indonesian team) lacked sharpness and tenacity in both matches. They do not have the decisive factor like Firas Al-Buraikan (Saudi Arabia) or Zidane Iqbal (Iraq). Saudi Arabia and Iraq may have had moments when they were inferior to Indonesia, but they were superior to their opponents in handling decisive situations.

Indonesia is just a group of second-rate players in Europe. They have not shown their class and tenacity at the decisive moment (Photo: PSSI).

In fact, Indonesia is just a collection of many second-rate players in Europe. They are trained properly, have plenty of energy, but in some ways, they lack top-level matches. The 2026 World Cup qualifiers are the first tournament where they play top matches with the national team. Even at club level, most of the naturalized Indonesian players play for mediocre clubs in the Old Continent.

With that reinforcement, Indonesia has surpassed the level of Southeast Asian football. But they still need to improve a lot if they want to reach the Asian level. Not only losing to Saudi Arabia or Iraq, before that, the "naturalized" Indonesia also easily lost to Japan (0-4, 0-6) or Australia (1-5) in the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.

Therefore, Coach Kluivert’s team has nothing to be sad about. Getting into the 4th round of the World Cup qualifiers is already a success for Indonesia. Whether coach Shin Tae Yong or Kluivert leads, the situation is not necessarily better. But if they continue to trust Coach Kluivert, PSSI needs to build a roadmap as well as naturalize more quality players. Only then can Indonesian football overcome the boundary of “lacking a little class” to succeed.

The unpredictable consequences of broken dreams

It is a fact that the current Indonesian squad was assembled with coach Kluivert with the aim of winning a ticket to the 2026 World Cup. They have really collapsed after not being able to materialize their dream of participating in the tournament in the US, Mexico and Canada.

The naturalized Indonesian players collapsed, covering their faces and crying when they could not get tickets to the World Cup (Photo: Detik).

And when the dream is broken, it can lead to many unpredictable consequences, when naturalized players no longer have the desire to fight for the Indonesian flag in the future. Fans can feel this through the statement of center back Jay Idzes.

“I don’t know where to start. Our dream of participating in the World Cup has collapsed. It’s hard when you work hard for a long time, then fail miserably. Maybe this is not the right time for Indonesia to make it happen,” Jay Idzes said.

Indonesian football is like a tightrope walker between two high mountains. They can bring excitement but cannot let go. The over-reliance on naturalized players has forced Garuda to pursue this policy, in the context of the lack of emphasis on youth training.

The current crop of players will have to wait another five years for the next World Cup. In between, they will only have one Asian Cup in 2027. Most of the remaining time, Indonesia will play friendly matches or participate in Southeast Asian tournaments.

The question is, are these naturalized players, who are accustomed to European football, willing to contribute to these “useless” matches at a low level? It must be emphasized that they were gathered for the purpose of participating in the 2026 World Cup.

Indonesia is too dependent on naturalized players. They cannot let go of this policy (Photo: PSSI).

Bola newspaper is concerned that the naturalized Indonesian players will “lose their inspiration”. Even coach Kluivert admitted that he has no plans with the Indonesian team after the failure in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Indonesia has built a strong force and nurtured big dreams, but how they stand up after defeat is worth discussing. It is possible that the defeat against Iraq is just the first domino to fall on Indonesian football.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/tuyen-indonesia-giac-mo-world-cup-tan-vo-va-he-luy-khon-luong-20251013003948021.htm