Indonesian National Team Realistically Looking to Fourth Round

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — A crushing defeat by Australia has brought the Indonesian national team back down to earth after soaring with high expectations. The ambition of Indonesia's coach, Patrick Kluivert, to help his squad qualify for the 2026 World Cup through the third round must now be abandoned. The "Garuda" team must return to its previous target, namely focusing on securing a ticket to the fourth round.

After playing the seventh game, Indonesia's ranking dropped one position in Group C of the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Japan has already secured its position as the first team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup through the qualification pathway.

Australia trails in second place with 10 points, followed by Saudi Arabia in third position with a total of nine points. With three games remaining, Australia has the potential to accumulate a maximum of 19 points, while Saudi Arabia could gather 18 points.

Unquestionably, the two teams regularly participating in the World Cup have become the most favored to accompany Japan to the main stage of the 2026 World Cup. The results of the matches between these two teams against Japan in the upcoming games could determine the second-place team.

At least, the team that can avoid defeat against the "Blue Samurai" will have a greater chance of directly qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. Meanwhile, the final duel of the third round on June 10, 2025, which will bring the two teams together in Riyadh, is likely to determine the team that secures second place.

You don't have the spirit we have in the team. Of course, we will react positively against Bahrain.

With that condition, the three other teams in Group C, all of which have six points—namely Indonesia, Bahrain, and China—should focus on aiming for a third or fourth-place finish to advance to the fourth round.

Indonesia is clearly favored to be one of the teams from Group C advancing to the next round. This is because the Garuda squad will face two direct competitors, Bahrain and China, at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta. Bahrain will be hosted on March 25, while the match against China is scheduled to take place on June 5.

Kluivert is not worried about the condition of his squad after returning from Australia with a second heavy defeat against Australia. Previously, Indonesia fell 0-6 to the Socceroos in the 1974 World Cup qualifiers in March 1973 in Sydney.

"You don't have the spirit that we have in the team. Of course, we will react positively against Bahrain," Kluivert said in a press conference after the match against Australia, Thursday (20/3/2025).

Rather than dwelling on the defeat and individual blunders made by his players in Sydney, Kluivert stressed that the Indonesian squad must forget about the defeat to Australia. The Indonesian national team arrived in Jakarta on Friday (21/3/2025) afternoon.

Jay Idzes and his friends are scheduled to do physical recovery training on Friday night and Saturday (3/22/2025) morning. Intensive training on the field to prepare to host Bahrain will be held on Saturday evening.

"The most important thing first is to bring positive energy back into the team. We have to hold our heads high together and try to get a good result," Kluivert said.

"We have to get a win against Bahrain at home," he added.

Indonesia must beat Bahrain and China to secure a place in the fourth round. The Garuda squad must excel in their head-to-head record with the two main competitors to have a better ranking if they have equal final points.

Referring to the 2026 World Cup qualifying tiebreakers rules, the head-to-head record is the main reference for determining the ranking of two or more teams that have the same points. Then, the calculation is followed by goal difference and goal productivity.

In the first game, Indonesia drew 2-2 at Bahrain's home ground. In order to win head-to-head over China, Garuda must win by more than two goals over the "Dragon Team" in the duel in June.

Bahrain coach Dragan Talajic is determined that his team can maintain the high level of intensity of performance like the 0-2 defeat to Japan. According to him, the quality of Japan's individuals and team caused Bahrain to fail to provide a surprise.

"Japan played with high quality. We also have to maintain our performance in the remaining three games to get good results to qualify for the next round. We also hope that Japan will sweep the remaining three games to help us," Talajic said as reported by Gulf Daily News.

If Indonesia can meet the initial target of securing third or fourth place and advancing to the fourth round, then the Garuda squad has the potential to be the only non-Arab team competing in that round. Six teams will compete in the fourth round to compete for the last two direct qualification spots for the 2026 World Cup.

In Group A, for example, the tickets to the fourth round are narrowed down to two teams that are rivals in the Middle East, namely the United Arab Emirates (10 points) and Qatar (10). For the top two zones, it is difficult to escape from Iran (19) and Uzbekistan (16).

Iran even has a big chance to become the second team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup to follow Japan. Sardar Azmoun and his friends can qualify on Tuesday (3/25/2025) if they can defeat Uzbekistan in Tehran.

Then, in Group B, three teams have the chance to advance to the fourth round. They are Jordan (12 points), Iraq (12), and Oman (7). In addition to having the chance to advance to the next round, Jordan and Iraq still have hope to qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup by occupying the top two positions with South Korea (15).