This classification clearly reflects the difference in class in Southeast Asia in Asia. However, football is always interesting when the most impressive team so far at the tournament is Indonesia, when they won tickets to the quarterfinals very convincingly.
Indonesian phenomenon
Except for Indonesian Football Federation President Eric Thohir, who is always optimistic and believes that Indonesia will pass the group stage, almost everyone sees this as an impossible task when Indonesia falls into a heavy group including hosts Qatar and Jordan – the two reigning champions. Champion and runner-up of the 2024 Asian Cup just ended in mid-February 2024. The remaining opponent is Australia, Asia’s leading football country.
Despite losing the first match 0-2 to Qatar and 2 red cards, coach Shin Tae-yong’s team played better and better, especially in the last match against Jordan, when there were 9 Indonesian national players in the squad. Starting players include goalkeeper Ernando Ari, center back Rizky Ridho, left back Pratama Arhan (Suwon Korea), center back Justin Hubner (Cerezo Osaka, Japan); midfielder Ivar Jenner (Utrecht. Netherlands), left midfielder Nathan Tjoe A-on (Heerenveen, Netherlands); striker Rafael Struick (Ado Den Haag, Netherlands); midfielder Witan Sulaeman and attacking midfielder Marselino Ferdinan.
Coach Shin Tae-yong
Most of these talents were in the U22 Indoensia squad that won the SEA Games 32 gold medal nearly a year ago in Cambodia.
The Indonesian team at the tournament is the elite of Indonesian football formed with a comprehensive youth investment strategy over the past 4 years and “star” naturalization for all players born from 2001 to 2003. Collective These guys have continuously played together from U19, U22, U23 and the national team.
Even more special is that coach Shin Tae-yong has gone along with this plan of Indonesia. With what Indonesian football has achieved from the SEA Games through the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup and most recently reaching the quarterfinals of the 2024 U23 Asian Cup, coach Shin Tae-yong has had his contract extended by the Indonesian Football Federation until 2027.
This is the foundation for Indonesian football to change. They play maturely, are highly organized, understand each other and have more experience than their young colleagues of the same age in Southeast Asia.
U23 players have early competition experience, training, and competition not only in Asia but also in Europe. That’s not counting the strength that is also fueled by naturalized resources.
Up to this point, Indonesia is the Southeast Asian representative competing most prominently and effectively at the tournament. Especially through the 4-1 victory over Jordan with goals from skillful coordination and ending with very technical shots that even the Indonesian national team could not perform.
Temporary form or class?
The question is why in the loss to Qatar, Indonesia did not create any dangerous situations and was clearly the underdog team when facing the Qatar team.
In the second match, Indonesia only had 36% ball control, 1 shot on target and goalkeeper Ari was constantly tortured by the Australian players’ onslaught of attacks, but they finished poorly.
The 1-0 win over Australia was a commendable effort from Indonesia, but the match still showed that Australia was still the superior team.
Of course, Indonesian football fans have grounds to be excited and excited when the Indonesian team has passed the group stage in their first appearance in the final round.
An achievement that only four teams had previously achieved was Qatar in 2016; Palestine, Malaysia in 2018 and Turkmenistan in 2022. However, only Qatar reached the semi-finals while the other three teams all stopped in the quarter-finals.
Therefore, wait and see the match against the Korean “mountain” at 8:30 p.m. on April 25 in the quarterfinals, then you will know the true strength of the Indonesian team consisting of 13 national players and 3 naturalized players (1 The club recently called him back was left midfielder Nathan Tjoe A-on, who is playing in the Dutch championship).
Thailand is still number 1
Thailand unexpectedly beat Iraq 2-0, opening up a great opportunity to advance to the quarterfinals, but they lost to Saudi Arabia 0-5 and then lost to Tajikistan 0-1 to not only be eliminated but also fall to the bottom of the group. .
This result truly reflects the quality of Thailand’s squad participating in the tournament. If the comprehensive loss to defending champion Saudi Arabia had a reason when the opponent was too strong, then the decisive loss to Tajikistan was considered weaker, clearly the Thai team’s strength is not as strong as it seemed. thought after the victory over Iraq.
In terms of national team achievements in the Southeast region, Thailand is still number 1
This unexpected result reflects Thailand’s mindset when coming to the tournament. Completely different from Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand do not have the best force because they lack many good players.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the second squad due to the absence of a group of elite players: defender Bukkoree Lemdee, defender Chatmongkol Rueangthanarot, attacking midfielder Channarong Promsrikaew; striker Yotsakorn Burapha (Chonburi, Thailand); midfielder Maximilian Steinbauer (Sukhothai, Thailand); midfielder Airfan Doloh (Uthai Thani, Thailand); midfielder Suphanat Mueanta (Oh Leuven, Belgium); striker Achitpol Keereerom (FC Augsbutg II, Germany)…
This means that Thai football prioritizes the development of the Thai-League, does not stop the national championship because of youth tournaments, but here is the U23 Asian Cup, from which clubs have full authority to agree or not to agree to release. army.
For example, Chonburi refused to provide 4 players for the Thai U23 team. Even foreign clubs did not agree to release their troops when the U23 Asian Cup was not part of the FIFA national team competition system.
This is also the reason why despite being present in the final round of the U23 Asian Cup 5 times, Thailand’s best achievement is to only place first in the group once and stopping in the quarterfinals in 2020.
For Thailand, they prioritize developing the national championship and focusing on the achievements of the national team. Therefore, although Thailand’s recent achievements in youth tournaments are not top in the Southeast region, Thailand’s achievements at the national team level are still number 1 in the region.
The AFF Cup is not innovative
The AFF Cup was born in 1996 and is held every 2 years and up to now the tournament’s journey has been 28 years. The tournament was first held in September and then gradually moved to a fixed period ranging from November to December or from December of this year to January of the following year.
The tournament was formed correctly because this is no different from the Southeast Asian championship for national teams in the region, a quality and prestigious championship that national teams must focus on participating in.
However, what is wrong with the Southeast Asian Football Federation is that it organizes the tournament during the time the national championships in the region are underway, instead of like FIFA or UEFA always organizing the World Cup or EURO during that time. fixed from June to July, with the national championships ending usually at the end of May.
The unreasonable schedule of the Southeast Asian Football Federation has made countries in the region passive. For example, to participate in the AFF Cup 2024, the V-League 2024-2025 is expected to be suspended for 32 days for the Vietnamese team to participate. On the contrary, the Thai-League is still proceeding and clubs still have the right not to release troops to teams competing in the AFF Cup.
The unreasonable schedule of the Southeast Asian Football Federation has made countries in the region passive
Yet, despite missing nearly 10 key players, Thailand still managed to overcome Vietnam through the first and second finals in 2022 to successfully defend the AFF Cup championship title.
Speaking of this fact, it shows that Thailand is trying to stay in line with the general development trend of the professional football world. This is the path that Vietnamese football must follow if it wants to develop.
At the same time, officials of the national football federations in the Southeast Asian region and especially those in these organizations who participate in the executive board of the Southeast Asian Football Federation need to speak up fiercely to change the AFF Cup match schedule so that the tournaments uninterrupted national championship.
With this change, new national teams can participate in the tournament with the strongest force.
Taking a brief look at the investment, orientation and football management apparatus of the leading countries in Southeast Asia as well as the Southeast Asian Football Federation, we will better understand why Southeast Asian soccer is still considered a low-lying area. Simply because as Southeast Asian football sow, so will it reap.
