National Football Coaching Evaluation Emergency

The elimination of Indonesia's U-20 team from the competition in the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup after consecutive defeats by Iran and Uzbekistan should no longer be taken lightly by PSSI. National football stakeholders should not merely view the performance of the "Young Garuda" in China as a failure to meet the target of qualifying for the 2025 U-20 World Cup, but there is a significant issue reflected in the players' performance.

Indeed, the team coached by Indra Sjafri should not seek excuses for their inability to compete in Group C of the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup in China against two tough opponents, Iran and Uzbekistan. PSSI has already sent the U-20 team for phased training camps over the past year. The training camp began with sessions in Como, Italy, from May to June 2024.

They were sent to participate in several international tournaments starting with the Toulon Tournament in France, June 2024. Then, Dony Tri Pamungkas and his teammates were trained by participating in a tournament in Seoul, South Korea, where they managed to defeat the Argentina U-20 team.

After undergoing the qualification match for the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup, the Garuda Muda squad was also trained intensively in Japan with a series of test games.

Domestically, they conducted training camps in Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali, and participated in a mini-tournament against Jordan, Syria, and India in Sidoarjo, East Java, before flying to Shenzhen, China, to compete in the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup.

However, the performance of the U-20 team fell far short of expectations. Five out of the six goals that went into goalkeeper Ikram Algiffari's net started with a cross. The Garuda Muda defenders struggled to anticipate aerial balls from Iran and Uzbekistan.

Indonesia could only score one goal against Uzbekistan. Once again, Jens Raven was the main goal hope for Garuda Muda. Raven's contribution of four goals was the key factor for Indonesia to win the AFF U-19 Cup 2024, which took place in Surabaya, East Java, last July.

With a training camp conducted for one year and the opportunity for players to gain experience competing abroad, what caused the U-20 team to be powerless in the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup?

The failure of the U-20 team to meet the target of appearing in the 2025 Chile U-20 World Cup is purely based on the quality of the Garuda Muda players who are far behind other teams in Asia. In addition to long training camps and thorough preparation, the majority of players have also gained experience appearing in national professional competitions, especially League 1 and League 2 in the 2024-2025 season.

Twelve of the 23 players Indra sent to China have already had playing time for their clubs this season. For players who are still teenagers, the opportunity to play proves that they have great potential compared to their peers.

The U-20 team also has Raven and Marselinus Ama Ola who have careers abroad. Raven plays for the Dutch team, Dordrecht U-21. Meanwhile, Marselinus is contracted to the Spanish team, UD Logrones Promesas.

The players who are the result of domestic training have proven unable to compete with Iranian and Uzbek players. Although some of them are also familiar with competing in international games because they are graduates of the 2023 U-17 World Cup team and there are Dony and Kadek who were main players in the 2024 AFF Cup, that experience cannot boost the quality of those who are left behind at the Asian level.

The matches against Iran and Uzbekistan showed a lack of tactical understanding, poor collective initiative from the players, and a lot of basic mistakes in defensive situations and final pass distribution when attacking. All these shortcomings cannot be fixed just through a year of joint training camps.

The thing to note from the performance of the Garuda Muda squad is the fruit of the Indonesian early age development process that is not running optimally. In the midst of the naturalization program of diaspora players by PSSI to strengthen the "Garuda" and "Garuda Muda" squads, there has been no structured improvement in the grassroots development program.

Players who excel at an early age are a blessing, if not a miracle, who emerge from conditions of deprivation. Young players have not been given a fair chance in equal early age development, equitable football facilities, and tiered youth competitions.

In fact, the signal that the quality of Garuda Muda players is lagging behind other countries has been seen in the 2024 AFF Cup, which was the last tournament with Coach Shin Tae-yong. At that time, Indonesia came down with the strength of the U-22 team.

U-22 players who have professional contracts with the best Indonesian teams were also unable to beat teams that have been easy to beat, such as Laos and the Philippines. For the first time in an official tournament, Indonesia was held by Laos and lost to the Philippines on home soil.

Moreover, players who are over 20 years old should have shown the majority of their maximum quality as footballers. The Indonesian team in the 2024 AFF Cup showed the quality of coaching and national competition that should be improved comprehensively. This was emphasized by the U-20 team coached by Indra.

The performance of the Indonesian national team that has been filled with naturalized players hopefully does not make PSSI and national sports stakeholders dazzled. They applaud the achievements of the Garuda team that can compete in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

However, in reality, the quality of domestically trained players has declined considerably. This is where justice should be present. With the current conditions, it is certainly very unfair to compare the quality of domestically trained players with naturalized players.

Diaspora players born and raised in Europe enjoy a stable coaching system, football facilities and youth competition programs that have been proven to produce world-class players. The majority of local players do not experience such luxuries.

The current early age coaching is only suitable for regenerating players for national competitions. However, those players are already left behind when competing at the Asian level, even ASEAN.

In the end, local players will be bullied by netizens when they perform poorly defending the Garuda symbol on their chests. When they are struggling to improve their abilities in the midst of a very limited coaching system, they also have to recover from cyber attacks that often hurt their mentality.

So, does PSSI still want to dream of going to the World Cup without fixing the coaching program first?