2026 Asian Cup Qualification, “Garuda Pertiwi” Not Afraid of High Targets

TANGERANG, KOMPAS — The Indonesian women's national football team is determined to compete again in the Asian Cup, which will be held in Australia in 2026. Although the challenge is tough as they must become group champions, the "Garuda Pertiwi" team is undeterred in facing it.

The women's national team is competing in Group D of the 2026 Asian Cup qualifiers alongside Taiwan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan, from Sunday (29/6/2025) to Saturday (5/7/2025). All matches in this group will be held at the Indomilk Arena Stadium, Tangerang Regency, Banten.

Indonesia entered the qualifiers with high hopes. Moreover, in the previous edition, "Garuda Pertiwi" successfully ended a 33-year wait to return to the Asian level. They qualified through the qualifying round after securing the top position in their group.

Satoru Mochizuki, the coach of the Indonesian women's national team, stated that his team aims to win the group again in order to qualify for the Asian Cup. This is because, similar to the previous edition of the qualifiers, there are only eight tickets available for the Asian Cup.

Eight tickets are contested by 34 teams in eight groups. This means that only the best team in each group can advance to this four-yearly tournament at the Asian level.

In the 2022 Asian Cup qualifiers, Indonesia could be considered fortunate as one of the opponents in Group C, North Korea, withdrew due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, North Korea was one of the strongest teams, having held the title in the 2001, 2003, and 2008 editions.

In addition to North Korea, Iraq also withdrew 16 days before the start of the qualifying round. As a result, Indonesia only needed to defeat Singapore in two matches to secure the top position in Group C. Indonesia successfully completed that task.

In this qualification round, Indonesia benefits from being the host. In addition to not needing much adaptation, the players can gain a boost of motivation from the support of their own public.

"Indeed, our target is to be the group champion. As for Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Taiwan, we have never met before, so we can only conduct analysis through video. However, we are building a team to face any opponent," said Mochizuki.

On paper, Indonesia is actually superior to Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan, which are the first two opponents. Shafira Ika and her teammates will first face Kyrgyzstan on Sunday (29/6/2025), and then compete against Pakistan on Wednesday (2/7/2025).

Based on the world rankings as of June 12, 2025, Indonesia, which occupies the 95th position, is above Kyrgyzstan (136) and Pakistan (157). The ranking of the Indonesian women's national team in the last three years, or since the 2022 Asian Cup, can also be considered more progressive than that of both opponents.

Indeed, our target is to win the group.

After experiencing a downturn at the beginning of 2024, ranking 109th, Indonesia's position has gradually improved thanks to several victories in matches on the FIFA calendar. Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan has reached its lowest point in the last three years in June 2025 after losing several matches, including two encounters with Kazakhstan, with scores of 1-2 and 1-3 last May.

Pakistan's position tends to be stagnant. Pakistan has not been active in official FIFA matches this year. Their last match was in 2024 when they drew 1-1 with Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.

Only Taiwan can be said to be the toughest opponent for Indonesia. Referring to the world rankings, Taiwan is the team with the best position (42) in the group. In 2023, they even reached the 37th rank, their best position in eight years.

However, Indonesia is undeterred by that challenge. Mochizuki stated that the match against Taiwan, which will be Indonesia's final game on Saturday (5/7/2025), will be a crucial match for his team. However, he reiterated that they must be able to overcome Taiwan in order to achieve their goal of becoming group champions.

The Japanese coach will also implement player rotation so that the team can perform well in three matches. "We are preparing a team that can compete against any team, but of course, if players play consecutively, it will be challenging. Therefore, we will try to rotate effectively to face three opponents well," he stated.

Mochizuki brought 23 selected players from a pool of 38 players called up. Some of the players are from the age group who previously represented Indonesia in the 2024 U-17 Asian Cup, such as Claudia Scheunemann, Gadhiza Asnanza, and Nabila Divany. The latter two also led the U-19 team to achieve third place in the 2025 AFF Cup earlier this month.

In addition to the young players, there are also experienced players representing the national team, one of whom is Viny Silfianus, who also participated in the 2022 Asia Cup.

Viny said, the chemistry between them has been formed even though they only started training together on June 10. The reason is, Coach Mochizuki often emphasizes the chemistry on the field.

The Chairman of PSSI, Erick Thohir, stated that they do not want to place excessive pressure on the women's national team. Moreover, most of the players are still young.

"So, I do not want to apply pressure even though the management of the women's national team has targets. Of course, I would be happy if we can indeed achieve those targets," said Erick.