Indra Sjafri Between the Dream of the U-20 World Cup and the Footsteps of Djamiat Dalhar

The Indonesian U-20 team will be the first squad to begin the competition towards their first World Cup this year. The certainty of realizing the dream of appearing in the U-20 World Cup will be presented in the main round of the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup held in China.

After that, the Indonesian U-17 team will compete in the U-17 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia in April, and the Indonesian national team will play four final matches of the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in March and June.

Although those three teams have to face a rough road to reach the world stage, the U-20 team coached by Indra Sjafri has a tougher chance.

In order to qualify for the U-20 World Cup for the second time in the history of "Garuda Muda" since the 1979 edition, Indra must lead his team to the semifinals.

In two previous occasions leading the team in the U-20 Asian Cup, namely the 2014 and 2018 editions, Indra's best achievement was bringing Indonesia to the quarter-finals. The dream of reaching the World Cup was dashed by Japan in the quarter-finals.

The path of Dony Tri Pamungkas and his teammates to advance to the knockout stage is also not easy. They are grouped with Iran, Uzbekistan, and Yemen in Group C.

Indonesia will begin its journey towards the 2025 U-20 World Cup, which will be held in Chile, by facing Iran on Thursday (February 13, 2025) at 19:30 WIB, at the Shenzhen Youth Football Training Center Stadium.

Three days later, Indonesia will meet Uzbekistan at the same venue. The final group stage match will conclude with a game against Yemen on February 19.

Referring to the quality of early age coaching and the team's history, Iran and Uzbekistan are the strongest competitors for Garuda Muda to advance to the quarter-finals. Iran, which won the U-20 Asian Cup four times in the 1970s, reached the quarter-finals in the 2023 edition.

Iran also has ambitions to qualify for the U-20 World Cup. The last time they made it to the U-20 World Cup was in 2017 in South Korea.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan is the defending champion of the U-20 Asian Cup. Their first title in the 2023 edition brought them to the 2023 U-20 World Cup in Argentina. In the U-20 World Cup, Uzbekistan's progress was stopped in the round of 16 due to a 0-1 defeat to Israel.

During the 2010s, Uzbekistan has qualified for the U-20 World Cup three times. That means they have managed to qualify for at least the semifinals of the U-20 Asian Cup three times out of five participations.

In order to maintain their hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase of the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup and the 2025 U-20 World Cup, Garuda Muda must not lose to Iran and Uzbekistan. Indonesia's chances of winning one of the two knockout phase quotas from Group C will be more open if Indonesia can get four points from the first two games against the two Asian giants.

"We have to focus, be disciplined and work hard from the first minute when facing Iran," said Dony on the sidelines of a training session in Shenzen, Tuesday (11/2/2025), as reported on the PSSI website.

Meanwhile, Yemen is a team that is very open for Indonesia to get three points. Although in the qualifying round of the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup, the duel between the two teams ended in a 1-1 draw, Indonesia has better experience in the main event of the U-20 Asian Cup. Yemen has never qualified for the knockout phase in five U-20 Asian Cup participations since the turn of the millennium.

In order to compete in Group C, Indra must improve his team's performance after still being full of shortcomings in the qualifying round until three trial matches titled Mandiri U20 Challenge Series in Sidoarjo, East Java, last January. In six matches in the two tournaments, the main weakness of the Garuda Muda squad was the lack of creativity in the midfield.

Progressive passes to the final pass are still an obstacle to creating opportunities in the opponent's penalty box. This condition is certainly homework for the midfielders, namely Toni Firmansyah, Evandra Florasta, Fandi Bagus, and Aditya Warman.

Without improving the performance of the players at the heart of the game, Indonesia will have difficulty breaking down the opponent's defense with qualified quality. Moreover, Iran and Uzbekistan have players with individual qualities much better than the previous opponents of the Indonesian U-20 team, such as Timor Leste, Maldives, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, and India.

If there is no improvement in the middle, Indonesia's attacks will still be monotonous, relying on long passes from the back players and acceleration from the wingers.

Those two strengths are very vulnerable if they are relied on because long passes are less effective when used against three competitors in Group C who have tall bodies that are ideal for facing aerial balls. Then, just relying on attacks from the wings will be difficult because Iran and Uzbekistan also have fast and tough wings.

This situation will divide the focus of Indonesian wingers, such as Dony, Welber Jardim, Marselinos Ama Ola, and Arlyansyah Abdulmanan, to reduce the opponent's attacks and initiate attacks.

Amidst these doubts, Indra is optimistic that his team can show their best performance in the U-20 Asian Cup.

"Hopefully the 23 players will be able to give their maximum ability to answer the hopes of all Indonesian people," said Indra.

Indra has equaled the achievement of the late legendary national coach, Djamiat Dalhar. Indra and Djamiat are the coaches who led Indonesia to three editions of the U-20 Asian Cup.

Djamiat coached the young Indonesian squad in Thailand 1967, Philippines 1970, and Japan 1971. He helped Indonesia reach the final in the 1967 and 1970 editions, although they were defeated by Israel and Burma (Myanmar) respectively with a score of 0-3.

In those two editions, Djamiat led Indonesia unbeaten until the final. In Thailand 1967, for example, Indonesia advanced to the final with four wins and one draw, scoring 17 goals and conceding five.

Three years later in the Philippines, Indonesia performed perfectly by winning all five matches. In that match, the Garuda Muda squad scored seven goals and only conceded one goal.

With the level of continental competition that has increased significantly, it is certainly too much to set a target for the Indonesian U-20 team to compete in the final round of the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup. Helping the Garuda Muda squad reach the semifinals in China and winning a ticket to Chile to compete in the 2025 U-20 World Cup will make Indra's name more famous than Djamiat's.

Good luck, Young Garuda!