It's Time for the Indonesian Futsal National Team to Move Up to Asian Level

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — After winning the gold medal at the 2025 SEA Games, the Indonesian national futsal team has the best opportunity to prove that they possess abilities beyond just being champions in Southeast Asia. The "Garuda" squad is under expectations to perform brilliantly and achieve new milestones at the 2026 Asian Cup.

Indonesia had to wait 24 years to once again have the honor of hosting the Futsal Asian Cup. The first opportunity to host was in the 2002 edition, which marked the beginning of futsal becoming popular and a lifestyle among the Indonesian people. At the very least, participating in the futsal arena has become an alternative for the younger generation who have failed to break into the professional level in the world of football.

Since the 2002 edition, Indonesia has participated 11 times out of the 15 editions held from 2002 to 2026. In its participation, Indonesia's best performance was reaching the quarter-finals or the first stage of the knockout phase in Kuwait 2022. Indonesia was eliminated by the champion of that edition, Japan, with a narrow score of 2-3.

In nine other participations, Indonesia has consistently failed to advance beyond the group stage. The coach of the Indonesian national futsal team, Hector Souto, acknowledged that the Asian Cup is an opportunity for his players to elevate the status of futsal in Indonesia on the continental stage.

"This is a great experience for us. Competing in the Asian region is our current target," said Souto at a press conference ahead of the qualifying round, Monday (26/1/2026), at the Indonesia Arena, Jakarta.

The Asian Cup is being approached by the Indonesian team with a remarkable achievement, namely the gold medal from the SEA Games, marking the first in history. Indonesia has managed to break Thailand's streak of gold medal wins in five consecutive editions since 2007.

However, Souto reminded his team to quickly temper their happiness after winning gold at the SEA Games in Thailand. According to him, that achievement has now become part of the past for the Indonesian national futsal team.

"It will be a problem for us if we continue to think about the SEA Games. We are only focused on the matches we will face in the Asian Cup because a greater challenge awaits," said Souto, who holds a Spanish passport.

In addition to presenting a gold medal at the 2025 SEA Games, Souto, who also serves as the Technical Director of the Indonesian Futsal Federation, has also brought Indonesia the trophy for the 2024 ASEAN Futsal Championship. This achievement ended a 14-year wait to break Thailand's dominance in the event.

Indonesia is grouped in Group A alongside South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, and Iraq. The opening match of Iqbal Iskandar and his teammates will begin with a challenge against South Korea on Tuesday (27/1/2026) at 19:00 WIB. Subsequently, Kyrgyzstan and Iraq will be hosted on Thursday (29/1/2026) and Saturday (31/1/2026).

"We will strive to advance to the quarter-finals. To achieve this, we must maintain our focus match by match," said Souto.

He hopes that the support of the tens of thousands of supporters present at the Indonesia Arena during each match can be maximally utilized by the Garuda squad. The support of the supporters serves as another important asset for Indonesia to enhance their competitive mentality.

In order to meet the targets at the Asian Cup, Souto has selected 14 players to honor the Garuda emblem on their chests. Key players from the previous SEA Games, such as Ahmad Habiebie, Ardiansyah Nur, Syauqi Saud, and Samuel Eko, are still included in the final squad list for the 2026 Asian Cup.

In total, Souto only replaced two names in the SEA Games lineup. They are Yogi Saputra and Rio Pangestu. They swapped places with Romi Humandri and Evan Soumilena.

Based on the composition of clubs in the Indonesian Pro Futsal League, Bintang Timur Surabaya contributes the most. The three-time consecutive champions of Indonesia have sent six players.

A total of four players from Cosmo JNE, two players playing for Black Steel, and two players from Pangsuma.

The head coach of the South Korean national futsal team, Paulo Fernandes, stated that Indonesia will provide a very challenging start to the tournament for his players. He believes that playing under the pressure of the home supporters in an electrifying atmosphere will be a valuable experience for South Korea.

"The first match in every tournament will always be difficult, especially since we will be playing against Indonesia. It has been a long time since South Korea achieved success, so this is our opportunity to improve our performance at the Asian level," said Fernandes.

Having regularly reached the semifinals in the first four editions of the Asian Cup from 1999 to 2002, South Korea has consistently failed to advance past the group stage in their last nine participations. Their last appearance in the quarter-finals was in 2004.

Undoubtedly, Kyrgyzstan and Iraq are Indonesia's toughest opponents to advance from the group stage. Both teams managed to reach the quarter-finals of the 2024 Futsal Asian Cup in Thailand. Iraq even reached the semifinals in the 2018 edition held in Taiwan.

"Our goal is to prepare ourselves to win match after match in the group stage. Our target is to reach the knockout round," said Iraq's national futsal team coach Joao Carlos.

A similar sentiment was expressed by the head coach of the Kyrgyzstan national futsal team, Nurjan Djetybaev. "We are ambitious to advance to the knockout stage. We come with a younger team compared to two years ago, but we are ready to compete," said Djetybaev.