Crushed by Japan 0-6, Indonesia's Level is Still Far from the Quality of a World Cup Team

SUITA, TUESDAY — The Indonesian national football team learned an important lesson in their match against Japan on Tuesday (10/6/2025) at the Suita City Football Stadium, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The absolute defeat of 0-6 serves as a benchmark for the "Garuda" squad to prepare for the fourth round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers next October.

Indonesia lost everything in Suita. Japan scored three goals in each half. Daichi Kamada scored a brace or two goals in the first half in the 15th minute and 45+6. Takefusa Kubo also wrote his name on the scoreboard in the 19th minute.

After the water break, three players, namely Ryoya Morishita (55’), Shuto Machino (58’), and Mao Hosoya (80’), added to the suffering of Indonesia's defense. The final score of 0-6 marked Indonesia's worst defeat in an away match in Japan.

However, in the record of meetings against Japan, this score is similar to Indonesia's worst negative result when facing Japan in the Merdeka Tournament in 1976 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nevertheless, the 0-6 defeat in the 1976 Merdeka Tournament occurred when Indonesia fielded the PSSI B team, which was mostly composed of young players.

In addition, fielding a squad built through a naturalization program over the past two years, the Garuda team also failed to score in Japan. As a result, no Indonesian player has been able to conquer the defense of the "Blue Samurai" in Japan.

Indonesia could have lost by a larger margin had Emil Audero not made several crucial saves in the second half. The goalkeeper, born in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, made five saves.

Indonesia's coach Patrick Kluivert acknowledged that Japan excels in every aspect over Indonesia. According to him, Japan displayed an excellent performance both individually and as a team.

"Japan is a team that possesses a lot of quality and presents a World Cup level of play. This is a very important lesson for me personally as a coach, as well as for our team in facing the fourth round," said Kluivert at the press conference following the match.

"This result is painful. The 0-6 defeat is indeed embarrassing, but we have learned an important lesson to prepare ourselves for the fight in the next round," said winger Steafano Lilipaly, to the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) website.

From the match against Japan, which is currently ranked as the best team in Asia according to the latest FIFA rankings (15th position), the Indonesian team coached by Patrick Kluivert has reinforced the weaknesses that were already evident in the duels against Bahrain and China, namely the poor offensive creativity. Indonesia only scored one goal each against Bahrain and China, despite averaging 10 shots in those two matches.

In the match in Suita, Indonesia was unable to pose any threats to the Japanese goal. There were no shots created by Indonesian players. The Japanese goalkeeper, Keisuke Osako, did not break a sweat at all. The body and jersey of the goalkeeper from Sanfrecce Hiroshima were wet due to the rain that poured for the majority of the match duration.

In addition, Indonesia was also unable to penetrate Japan's defense. This was evident from the lack of touches inside the Blue Samurai's penalty area. This point of weakness certainly needs to be addressed in preparation for the fourth round match, which will compete for the last two direct tickets allocated to Asia for the 2026 World Cup.

Indonesia will face strong teams, such as Qatar, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), or Oman/Palestine (awaiting the results of the match between the two teams on Wednesday (11/6/2025) early morning WIB).

This (heavy defeat) is a very important lesson for me personally as a coach, but also for our team to face the fourth round. - Patrick Kluivert -

Although possessing player character and quality that are relatively below that of Japan, teams from the Middle East are similar to the "Blue Samurai" squad in their preference for dominating ball possession. Qatar, Iraq, and Oman (if qualified) recorded an average ball possession of over 60 percent during 10 matches in the third round of World Cup qualifying.

The UAE and Palestine tend to adopt a more pragmatic approach. Their average ball possession rates are 50 percent and 48 percent, respectively. This ball possession quantity is not significantly different from the average record of 44 percent ball possession held by the Garuda team.

Kluivert acknowledged that the fourth round battle will also be very challenging. Indonesia must win both matches in the mini-tournament format in the fourth round if it wants to achieve the target of advancing to the main stage of the 2026 World Cup.

"All participants in the fourth round are very strong teams and major countries that have ambitions for the World Cup like us. The defeat (against Japan) should serve as a benchmark for us to make plans and improve ourselves in preparation for October," said Kluivert.

In order to improve themselves after being defeated by Japan, Thom Haye and his teammates still have the opportunity to refine their preparations and address shortcomings in the international match scheduled for early September. The Chairman of PSSI, Erick Thohir, has scheduled friendly matches against two teams from the Arabian Peninsula, namely Kuwait and Lebanon.

Kuwait also participated in the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers by joining Group B. They failed to secure a single victory. Meanwhile, Lebanon was eliminated from the competition for a spot in the world stage in the second round due to their inability to compete with Australia and Palestine.

Despite the crushing defeat, Indonesia returned from Japan with greater wounds. This was due to injuries sustained by two players, Kevin Diks and Yakob Sayuri, who had to be substituted in the first half. Yance Sayuri also struggled to cope with an injury towards the end of the second half in order to remain on the field and prevent Garuda from playing with 10 players.

For the Japanese winger, Takefusa Kubo, the victory over Indonesia completed their task in the World Cup qualifiers. "We achieved a positive result. The team still needs to improve to face the actual matches in the World Cup," Kubo stated as reported by the AFC website.