Indonesia national team coach Patrick Kluivert has told his side they must learn from the “embarrassing” thrashing as they continue their quest to reach the World Cup for the first time as an independent nation, following a crushing 6-0 defeat by Japan.
Despite the heavy loss in Osaka on Tuesday, Indonesia’s World Cup dreams remain alive. They secured fourth place in Asian qualifying Group C and will now join Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Asian champions Qatar in October’s fourth qualifying round.
The draw for this round, which will feature two three-team groups with the winners advancing to the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is scheduled for next month.
Netherlands and Barcelona legend Kluivert, who took over the Indonesian team midway through the third qualifying round, admitted that Group C winners Japan were “a size too big” for his squad.
“We need to learn from this big defeat,” said the 48-year-old coach. “We’re very disappointed, of course, but we have to be prepared for the fourth round, and for me now the most important thing is to look back post-match, learn from it, and look forward to the fourth round.”
Indonesia had already guaranteed their spot in the fourth round last week by beating China 1-0 in Jakarta.
However, they were outclassed by a dominant Japan team that secured their World Cup berth with three games to spare and finished the third round with an impressive 30 goals from 10 matches.
Kluivert’s side also faced challenges during the match, including a first-half injury to forward Kevin Diks, whose replacement, Yakob Sayuri, was then substituted 15 minutes later due to a head clash.
Despite the difficulties, Kluivert maintained that while Japan’s quality was superior, Indonesia had to “admit this and carry on.”
“We tried our best, but it wasn’t enough,” he concluded. “It was the quality of the players that Japan had in this team.” We can talk a lot about it, but the fact is that Japan was a size too big for us this evening.”
