The success of advancing to the semifinals of the 2024 U23 Asian Cup has given confidence to the Indonesian U23 national team. Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium witnessed Indonesia defeating South Korea and making history by qualifying for the semifinals of the U23 Asian Cup for the first time.
The South Korea vs Indonesia match, which was held on Thursday (25/4/2024) ended in a 2-2 draw in 90 minutes of normal match time. Garuda Muda’s two goals were scored by Rafael Struick (15′, 45+3′). Meanwhile, South Korea’s goal came from Komang Teguh’s own goal (45′) and Jeong Sang-bin’s action (84′). Indonesia’s victory was confirmed after Pratama Arhan successfully executed the final penalty kick and brought Merah Putih to win 11-10.
The coach of the Indonesian U23 national team, Shin Tae-yong, admitted that this result had increased his team’s confidence. According to the 53 year old tactician, the target of getting to the final is now something that is possible for the Indonesian U23 national team to achieve. “I can’t say that we can’t win the championship. Obviously, we can reach the final,” said Shin Tae-yong. “This gave us confidence and we were able to reach the top four,” said the former South Korean national team coach.
Even so, Shin Tae-yong is aware that Garuda Muda still has a long way to go and will face increasingly tough opponents. Indonesia will face Uzbekistan or Saudi Arabia in the semifinals of the 2024 U23 Asian Cup. Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia are the finalists in the 2022 U23 Asian Cup. Saudi Arabia is the defending champion, while Uzbekistan has also been champions in the 2018 U23 Asian Cup.
“We have to get results. We have one day to recover. I will watch the match between the two teams and find out what to do and how to do it,” said Shin Tae-yong. “I know about Saudi Arabia because we had a test match in Dubai, but I don’t know anything about Uzbekistan. So I will see it tomorrow (tonight) and think about it,” he said.
Indonesia is now one step closer to the 2024 Paris Olympics. As is known, the 2024 U23 Asian Cup provides three automatic tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics, namely for the two finalist teams and the winner of the match for third place. Meanwhile, the team that loses in the match for third place in the 2024 U23 Asian Cup will compete for the final ticket to the 2024 Olympics with Africa’s representative, Guinea.
