U22 Indonesia fears U22 Vietnam and U22 Thailand at SEA Games 33

The U22 Indonesia team aims to successfully defend the men's football championship at the 33rd SEA Games. In the group stage, U22 Indonesia is in Group C with Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore - a group that is considered to be highly competitive and full of difficulties.

The 2025 SEA Games will take place in Thailand from December 3 to December 18. To prepare for this biennial tournament, Indonesia U22 has gathered in Jakarta since early October and had two friendly matches with India U22 at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, with the results being a 1-2 loss and a 1-1 draw.

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U22 Indonesia played a friendly match with U22 India in early October (Photo: Bola).

Coach Rasiman – who has worked with Indonesian youth teams for many years – highly appreciates the quality of the team’s current personnel. The 52-year-old strategist shared: “From what I see, Indonesian U22 players often compete in domestic professional tournaments, which helps them accumulate significant experience.”

He added: “The fact that the organizers only use players under 22 years old helps the squad become more balanced. Thanks to that, our chances of success are quite high.”

This training camp brings together 32 players, including four players currently playing abroad: Adrian Wibowo (Los Angeles FC), Tim Geypens (FC Emmen), Dion Markx (TOP Oss) and Ivar Jenner (FC Utrecht). Many players who have played for the national team such as Hokky Caraka, Rafael Struick, Muhammad Ferrari or Arkhan Fikri also appear on the list.

From the 2023 SEA Games, the tournament will no longer allow the use of overage players. According to coach Rasiman, this change creates a more sustainable development environment for Indonesian youth football: “When no longer dependent on seniors, young players have the conditions to mature in the right direction and are more confident in competition.”

Commenting on the coaching staff, he has great confidence in head coach Indra Sjafri - who has brought home many titles for Indonesian youth football in the regional arena. "Mr. Indra has not only won the ASEAN championship once, but three times. That is not a coincidence. He understands Southeast Asian football very well and is fully capable of continuing to bring home the gold medal at this year's SEA Games," Coach Rasiman emphasized.

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The referee gave Kadek Arel Priyatna a yellow card in the final match of the Southeast Asian U23 Championship between U23 Vietnam and U23 Indonesia (Photo: Getty).

Defender Kadek Arel Priyatna highly appreciated the challenges that U22 Indonesia will have to overcome when participating in the 33rd SEA Games in Thailand. The player of Bali United affirmed that the host team U22 Thailand and U22 Vietnam are the two biggest opponents that U22 Indonesia need to be especially wary of.

“The current squad includes many players who have competed in the Southeast Asian U23 Cup and the Asian U23 finals, so the ability to integrate is very good,” Kadek shared about the stability under coach Indra. However, he also admitted that things will be very different when facing the top opponents in the region.

“At the recent U23 Southeast Asia Cup, we could not defeat U23 Vietnam. As for Thailand, we only won on penalties. That shows there are still many things to improve,” he emphasized.

According to Kadek, the experience of facing two “giants” of Southeast Asian football is a valuable lesson for the whole team to continue to improve their physical strength, tactics and concentration in the journey to defend the SEA Games gold medal they won previously. With solidarity and great expectations from fans, U22 Indonesia is showing its determination to achieve the best results at the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand.

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