Women's National Team Coach Says Indonesia Is 5 Steps Behind Thailand: We Are Like Newborn Babies, While They Are Already In School

JAKARTA - The coach of the Indonesian women's national team, Rudy Eka Priyambada, assesses the quality of his squad is five steps behind Thailand ahead of the second meeting of the teams in the 2022 Asian Cup Group B match, Monday night.

"We are like newborn babies, while Thailand may have gone to school because they have competition (the women's league). Their level is five steps ahead of us, but I want the children to have a fighting spirit," said Rudy as quoted by Antara.

According to the 39-year-old tactician, it was the fighting spirit that became the main capital for Zahra Muzdalifah and his friends to beat Thailand.

Rudy asked his foster children to fight maximally in the field for the Garuda symbol on the chest.

The squad nicknamed Garuda Pertiwi is also expected to be confident and keep the ball as long as possible.

"We've seen the video footage of Thailand against the Philippines. At that time, the Philippines scored a goal because of a blunder from Thailand. So, we also have to be able to get out of pressure, control the ball and create scoring opportunities," said Rudy.

Meanwhile, Indonesian national team defender Shalika Aurelia emphasized that she and her colleagues were not afraid to face Thailand, which has twice appeared in the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Shalika emphasized the fact that, in the world of football, there is never a team that is unbeaten.

"Thailand is a strong team and has entered the World Cup, but we are not afraid. The proof is they can lose to the Philippines. We want to win and enthusiasm is a fixed price to make it happen," said the Roma club player Calcio Femminile in the Italian Women's Serie B League.

In Group B of the 2022 Women's Asian Cup, Indonesia is temporarily at the bottom of the standings after losing 0-18 to Australia in its first match. Thailand was entrenched in the third position because of the 0-1 defeat of the Philippines which is entitled to the second position under the leader of the Australian standings.

Thailand itself is the team with the second-best FIFA ranking in Group B of the 2022 Women's Asian Cup after Australia, while Indonesia is in the lowest position.

As of December 10, 2021, the Indonesian women's national team is in the 94th position of FIFA. Meanwhile, Thailand is in 38th place, the Philippines is 64th and Australia is in 11th position in FIFA.

In terms of achievement, Indonesia has not been able to match Thailand. Thailand was a participant in the 2015 and 2019 Women's World Cup group stages. They were also semifinalists of the 2018 Women's Asian Cup and won the tournament in 1983.

At the ASEAN level, the Thailand women's national team won four AFF Cup titles (2011, 2015, 2016, 2018) and became a "runner-up" in 2019. At the SEA Games, Thailand won the gold medal five times (1985, 1995, 1997, 2007, 2013) and silver medals in 2017 and 2019.

The Indonesian women's national team has not been able to qualify from the group stage of the AFF Cup since 2007. The best score in the SEA Games was a semifinalist in 1997 and 2001. In the Asian Cup, Indonesia was "off" from competition for 33 years before finally appearing again in the 2022 edition.

Thailand also has a women's soccer league which ran regularly from 2008 until, most recently, the 2020-2021 season edition.

In Indonesia, a similar league was only held in 2019. The competition was discontinued from 2020 until now due to the COVID-19 pandemic.