Source: Northern Sports
In the early morning of the 12th of October, Beijing time, in the second round of the second round of the fourth phase of the 2026 Asia Zone preliminary match, the Indonesian team won 0-1 against the Iraqi team, ranked in the B group with two consecutive defeats, thus making it absolutely unlikely to advance to the 2026 World Cup. From the outcome, the massive domestication project pursued by Indonesian football has failed, or is very immature. The hard reality proves once again that it is urgent to close the road and can not become an absolute guarantee for the success of the football career.
After squeezing out China and Bahrain, Indonesia won the fourth place in Group C of the third stage (Top 18) of the 2026 World Cup Preliminaries in Asia, thus entering the fourth stage play-offs. The situation is reminiscent of the scene when the Indonesian Olympic team (U23 team) broke into the intercontinental play-offs of the Paris Olympic preliminaries as the top four teams last year. It has to be said that with the strong support of the Indonesian government and Football Association, Indonesian football has made great progress in recent years. Speaking of which, we have to mention the naturalization project that Indonesian football has focused on in recent years.
Take the Indonesian team's lineup for the last two rounds of the quarter-finals announced in May this year as an example. Among the 32 players shortlisted at that time, as many as 21 were naturalized players. When Indonesia played against China at home in the fifth round of the 18 th round, there were still 14 people in its naturalization camp. According to foreign media reports, the Indonesian team's investment in introducing naturalized players has exceeded 90 million euros. Different from the number of naturalized players selected by the China team in the past two World Cup qualifying cycles, the Indonesian team has not only introduced a large number of naturalized players, but also a considerable number of them play in European clubs, and some players can even be qualified as the main force in European clubs.
However, as far as the progress of this World Cup preliminaries is concerned, the Indonesian team, with naturalized players as its backbone, has not shown its strength in entering the World Cup. In the World Cup preliminaries in October, Indonesia lost to the host Saudi Arabia 2-3 in the first round, and then lost to Iraq 0-1. Comparatively speaking, these two opponents, as the "mr. six" of Asian football, have rich experience in competitions, a high tacit understanding of the team as a whole, and reliable core players in the team. In addition, the competition is arranged in West Asia, so they are more suitable for such competition mode and environment than Indonesia. In fact, this is the main reason why Indonesia suffered a two-game losing streak in the play-offs at this stage.
It has to be said that the Indonesian Football Association has a tendency to be eager for quick success and instant benefits when starting the naturalization project. It is difficult for a patchwork of mercenaries to form a strong synergy. Therefore, once a traditional strong team withholds the "three axes" and scores a goal, the Indonesian team will often be psychologically broken and then collapse.
It is worth noting that in November last year, the Indonesian Football Association fired the South Korean head coach who had led the Indonesian Olympic team to make history.Shen TailongAlthough the Indonesian Football Association explained this move as "rapidly improving the competitiveness of the Indonesian team", new coach Kluivert is at best a "rookie" on the command stage. Although his arrival can improve the communication efficiency between the coaching staff and the naturalized army, it has not shown an advantage in improving the team's overall combat capabilities, especially cohesion on the field. In other words, the relative lack of a sense of belonging and teamwork ability is also the reason why the Indonesian team's naturalized army is prone to falling apart at critical moments.
Northern / Northern Sports