Australia vs Indonesia Review: Attacking Doesn't Suit "Garuda's" Defensive Mentality

Patrick Kluivert presented a different appearance for the Indonesian national team in the match against Australia at the Sydney Football Stadium, Thursday (3/20/2025). He immediately injected an attacking total football playing style for the "Garuda" squad. Instead of bringing home a victory, Indonesia actually played with a total blunder in defense.

The 1-5 defeat against Australia, to be honest, deserves to be called a very embarrassing result. Some of the public remain quite permissive about the outcome in Sydney, citing the argument that it was Kluivert's debut match as the tactician for the Indonesian national team.

Indonesia adopted an attacking approach in Sydney with a 4-2-3-1 formation, later transitioning to a 3-4-1-2 setup. In the first 10 minutes of the match, Indonesia recorded 67 percent ball possession and created two golden opportunities. The first was a header by center-back and team captain, Jay Idzes. The second was a penalty opportunity executed by Kevin Diks.

Matthey Ryan, Australia's goalkeeper and captain, was grateful that Indonesia failed to capitalize on the two big chances. "They played aggressively and were better in possession. If they could have scored early in the match, the game would have been different," Ryan said as reported by ABC.

However, those two major opportunities failed to result in goals and alter the course of the match at the beginning of the game. Indonesia's game plan collapsed when midfielder Nathan Tjoe-A-On was caught by the video assistant referee (VAR) pulling an Australian player during a corner kick situation in Indonesia's penalty box.

Referee Adham Mohammad pointed to the penalty spot in the 16th minute. Australian striker Martin Boyle executed the penalty kick flawlessly. From that moment, the fighting spirit of the Garuda squad crumbled.

Moreover, Thom Haye, another Indonesian midfielder, made a mistake that resulted in Australia's second goal. Nishan Velupillay capitalized well on a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper, Maarten Paes, after intercepting a clearance by Thom that inadvertently directed the ball toward the final third of Indonesia's defense.

Australia's third goal also began with Thom losing possession of the ball. Subsequently, Australia's senior midfielder, Jackson Irvine, had no difficulty releasing two shots directed at Indonesia's goal—one of which resulted in a goal—due to Nathan's delay in closing Irvine's space.

Two of Australia's goals in the second half originated from corner kicks executed by Craig Goodwin. Indonesian defenders, such as Sandy Walsh and Jay Idzes, lost aerial duels to Australia's goal scorers.

Australia's five goals came from just seven shots on target. In total, the Socceroos had nine shots.

Meanwhile, Indonesia, which recorded 60 percent possession of the ball, was able to produce 11 shots, but only one shot resulted in a goal through Ole Romeny in the 78th minute.

Australia's goals not only showed the Garuda squad's poor defensive coordination. In addition, the players completely failed to carry out their defensive roles. Individual errors added to Indonesia's misery, which was actually still searching for a standard amid only having two days of training under Kluivert's control.

Despite losing by a landslide, Indonesia still displayed a performance that brought good hope. The Garuda squad showed a good attacking performance that was not seen in the six matches with Shin Tae-yong.

The Indonesian players' passing accuracy reached 86 percent. That number is much better than the home team's passing accuracy of only 81 percent.

Indonesia also made 93 passes in Australia's final third with an accuracy rate of 70 percent. Australia only managed to make 16 passes in Indonesia's final third. The Socceroos' pass accuracy rate in Garuda's defensive end zone was only 41 percent.

That's my style of play. I think we played better than Australia. The difference in this game was the ability to take advantage of penalties. It's about the mental situation which is very important in important games.

Long passes from Indonesian players, which are generally diagonal passes from both sides of the field, also have a high success rate, namely 52 percent. In contrast, Australia's long passes are only accurate at 39 percent.

Indonesian players also outperformed Australia in duel winning percentage. Indonesia won 54 percent of duels, while Australia only won 46 percent.

However, the performance was like an anomaly due to the poor effectiveness of the attack. The accuracy of the final pass was not good enough, so that Indonesian players failed to present a significant threat after building an attack well from the defense line.

On the other hand, the open and offensive game also caused a gaping hole in Indonesia's defense. The high-pressing pattern caused Indonesia's defensive game to be chaotic. In fact, Indonesia had produced two clean sheets in the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers thanks to the low block tactic with Shin.

Personal mistakes and wrong positioning of players also cannot be separated from the lack of chemistry between players to understand Kluivert's playing style. Only practicing in two training sessions on the field before the match against Australia caused Kluivert's desire to play to not be able to be executed consistently by the Garuda squad.

When in the back line, the players were overwhelmed by Australia's positive transition. In the process of attacking, the distance between Indonesian players was far apart, making it easier for the Australian defenders who appeared disciplined to dampen the away team's attacks. Romeny was able to score a goal thanks to his slick individual action to steal the ball that was approaching the Australian defender, Jason Geria.

"We have to evaluate this first defeat and see each other's mistakes. Not only the players, maybe I made mistakes too," said Kluivert.

When asked about his team's attacking play, Kluivert replied, "That's my style of play. I think we played better than Australia. This game was different in terms of taking advantage of penalties. It's about the mental situation which is very important in important games."

With very little preparation time ahead of facing Bahrain, Tuesday (3/25/2025), at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium, Jakarta, Kluivert needs to renew his ambition to transform Indonesia into an attacking team in a short time. Moreover, Bahrain has proven itself as a very pragmatic team with a solid defense.