Victory and Irony of the Women's National Football Team

JEDDAH, FRIDAY - The women's national football team is still ahead of Saudi Arabia. However, with the rapid development of women's football and the structured, ongoing league in Saudi Arabia, it is not impossible for the country to match or even surpass Indonesia in the near future. Moreover, on the other hand, the development of football in Indonesia remains focused solely on the national team, while the implementation of the women's league continues to be postponed.

The women's national team began their 2025 schedule with a 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in an official FIFA match at King Abdullah City Stadium, Jeddah, on Thursday (20/2/2025) at midnight Western Indonesia Time. Indonesia's sole goal was scored by Reva Octaviani from the penalty spot in the 30th minute.

With this victory, Indonesia remains undefeated in three encounters with Saudi Arabia. In the two previous matches held in 2023, "Garuda Pertiwi" secured a 1-1 draw and a 1-0 win.

Although they managed to end the match with a victory, various evaluation notes were brought home by "Garuda Pertiwi" from this game. Regarding the transition from defense to attack, for instance, Indonesia still has not been able to execute it perfectly.

As a result, multiple opportunities for counterattacks were interrupted because only one Indonesian player pressed the opponent's defense. There was no support from other players who were still left behind in their own defensive area.

This problem appeared more often in the second half when Saudi Arabia attacked a lot and Indonesia relied on counterattacks. After the break, Indonesia was also under more pressure. Instead of running the game scheme comfortably because they were in a superior condition, Vivi Oktavia Riski and her friends panicked more often when they were going to build an attack.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia played calmly and executed their game plan without looking pressured by being behind. Towards the end of the first half, Saudi Arabia almost equalized the score after Al Bandari Mubarak was able to get past Indonesian goalkeeper Laita Roati and fired a shot towards the goal.

Luckily for Indonesia, Vivi was alert in front of the goal to clear the kick. Three minutes before the end of the match, Arab again threatened the Indonesian goal with a series of pressures. All of them did not result in a goal because the ball hit the crossbar.

On paper, Indonesia is superior to Saudi Arabia in several aspects. From the world ranking, for example, Indonesia has a better position than Saudi Arabia. "Garuda Pertiwi" is ranked 97th in the world, while Saudi Arabia is ranked 166th.

However, Saudi Arabia's current ranking represents a surge in four months. The team has risen eight places since August, their best position since entering the world rankings in March 2023.

Compared to Indonesia, which already has a women's national team and debuted in international tournaments since 1977, Saudi Arabia only launched its women's national team in 2021. However, that long span is not a guarantee of anything. Moreover, in the last four years, Saudi Arabia has shown their seriousness in building their women's football.

The team nicknamed “The Green Ladies”, under the leadership of coach Luis Cortes, has played 29 matches, scored 32 goals, and participated in 15 training camps. The presence of domestic competitions has also contributed to the development of the performance of the national team players.

After forming a national team in 2021 and launching a regional training camp program involving 700 young girls, Saudi Arabia launched a two-tier league. The women's football league is called the SAFF (Saido Arab Football Federation) Women's Premier League and the First Division League in 2022.

Two years later, Saudi Arabia also held the Saudi Women’s Second Division League, a third-tier women’s football competition. The competition was attended by 25 teams divided into five groups.

According to the NEOM report, the development from 2021-2023 created a 195 percent increase in the number of registered players. There was also a 112 percent increase in the number of women's football clubs. SAFF now has more than 35 female referees, over a thousand qualified coaches, and 50 international players from 20 countries participating in the SAFF Women's Premier League.

This situation is the opposite of Indonesia. Ironically, Indonesia's victory over Saudi Arabia was achieved just a few hours after PSSI Chairman Erick Thohir announced the news of the postponement of the women's league again.

In his upload on Instagram, Erick said that his party had just held a meeting for the planning of Liga 1 Putri which will roll in 2027. "We made projections by calculating the potential in several areas starting from operations, competitions and commercial for the next 10 years," wrote Erick.

"We will also conduct benchmarking with a number of women's leagues that are already running abroad such as leagues in the Netherlands, Japan and England. With thorough preparation, we want Women's League 1 to be able to roll for the long term and can improve the quality of women's soccer players who will strengthen the Indonesian Women's National Team," he wrote again.

In fact, on several occasions, Erick ensured that the women's league would roll in 2026. The reason is, the players' talents are not enough to be able to hold a competition in the near future. Erick targets the Women's League to be officially decided at the 2025 PSSI Ordinary Congress.

The first women's football competition was held under the title Liga 1 Putri in 2019. After Persib Putri emerged as champions, the competition was not continued in the following season. In three years, the league was not held due to the pandemic. However, in 2021, when three castes of men's football competitions and junior competitions had been run, Liga 1 Putri still did not roll.

Hope arose when PSSI encouraged the men's teams participating in League 1 to have the AFC Club Licensing Regulation, which is a license in accordance with the criteria set by the Asian football organization. One of the requirements is to have a women's team with a legal entity.

One of the clubs that just moved up a caste in 2021, Persis Solo, fulfilled the requirement by forming Persis Women. This club has a short-term goal to be able to compete in professional competitions held by PSSI. For that purpose, the coaching model is designed as a professional team.

Because the "hilal" for the rolling competition has not appeared, Persis chose to disband the team in 2023. The Indonesian Women's Football Association (ASBWI) was once promised by PSSI that the women's league would be held in 2025. However, in its development, the competition was postponed again in 2026 and most recently postponed again until 2027.

In fact, the competition can stimulate the development of female footballers. In addition, coach Satoru Mochizuki can easily find players like Reva because there is a competition. He, for example, does not need to bother monitoring the PON which only happens once every four years.

PSSI is more focused on developing women's football by building a national team. The long-term planned training camp was held to replace the absence of domestic competition. Meanwhile, women's footballers who did not enter the national team still have to endure once again waiting for the competition to come.