Shin Tae-yong Apologizes For Breaking South Korea's U-23 Record

JAKARTA - The U-23 Indonesian national team coach, Shin Tae-yong, apologized to South Korea U-23 after winning in the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup quarter-finals.

Taegeuk Warriors lost with a 10-11 penalty shootout from the U-23 Indonesian national team after the 2-2 draw to the extra round.

Shin Tae-yong is well aware that the U-23 Indonesian national team's victory broke South Korea's U-23 record at the Olympics.

This defeat destroyed the hopes of South Korea U-23 to fight for tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics. As is known, tickets to France can be obtained automatically for the top three teams of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup.

One remaining ticket can actually still be obtained by the fourth-placed team of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup, but must first win in the playoffs against the fourth-placed U-23 2023 Africa Cup, Guinea.

The elimination of South Korea U-23 made Shin Tae-yong apologize. After the match, the South Korean coach realized that his country's record at the Olympics had been tarnished.

"I apologize that I broke the record," Shin Tae-yong said in a press conference after the match on Friday, April 26, 2024.

"I really apologize to the people of South Korea. The competition is very tight and I apologize for causing trouble," he said again.

South Korea has always appeared in the Olympics from the 1988 to 2020 edition. This time, hopes to continue the record are dashed. Taegeuk Warriors had to miss the 2024 Paris Olympics after losing to Indonesia U-23 in the quarter-finals of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup.

Although Shin Tae-yong was faced with an uncomfortable situation because he had to repatriate his own country, he was professional about his job as coach of the U-23 Indonesian national team.

After bringing Garuda Muda to qualify for the semifinals of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup, the 53-year-old coach set a higher target.

He even wants to be able to lead the Indonesian national team to appear in the World Cup in the future and will work hard for that target.

Shin Tae-yong is indeed in charge of the Indonesian national team at the senior level, who is currently playing in the second round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers.

"My dream for Indonesian football is to bring the team to appear in the World Cup if we can continue our journey to the third round," said the coach.

"However, I also worked hard to improve the Indonesian national team," he said.

Currently, the Indonesian national team is in second place in Group F of the second round of the 2026 World Cup Qualification with a collection of seven points. The Garuda squad still has the opportunity to qualify for the third round.

There are still two matches left of Group F that will be played by the Indonesian national team, namely against Iraq (June 6, 2024) and the Philippines (June 11, 2024).

If successful in stepping into the third round, there are six tickets from three groups provided to qualify automatically for the 2026 World Cup.

Each winner and group runner-up in the third round will go straight to the 2026 World Cup.

Another path that can be taken is to become the third and fourth-placed team in the third round of qualification.

Later, the six teams will be divided into two qualifying groups for the fourth round and each group winner will qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

If the route does not penetrate, there is still one more way, namely to become runners-up in the fourth round of qualifying.

The two runners-up will be pitted in the fifth round. The winners will join five other teams through playoffs between confederations, CAF (Africa), Conmebol (South America), OFC (Oceania), and Concacaf (North, Central, and Caribbean America).