Preparations For Guinea U-23, Indonesia U-23 Immediately Flys To Paris
JAKARTA - The struggle of the Indonesian national team in the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup has indeed ended. However, efforts to win tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics are still ongoing.
Garuda Muda had to face the African representative, Guinea U-23, in a playoff match between confederations to win one remaining ticket to France.
In order to focus on facing the last opponent, Shin Tae-yong's troops immediately flew to Paris, which was the location of the match.
This was conveyed by the General Chairperson (Ketum) of PSSI, Erick Thohir, who said that after the last match of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup in Qatar, Marselino Ferdinand and colleagues went straight to Paris to prepare for the match on May 9, 2024.
"I asked them (the players) whether they still want to play or not? They answered still. One of them I said, it is impossible for us to go home (to Indonesia) and continue to go to France," said Erick Thohir as quoted by Antara on Monday, May 6, 2024.
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"If you go home first, it will make stamina drop, especially since many players are still injured. Not to mention the weather in France is 11 degrees Celsius which is far from Qatar, which is 22 to 33 degrees Celsius."
"Because of that, I offered them to go straight away and they wanted to," he said.
According to Erick Thohir, the departure of the U-23 Indonesian national team directly to France is the right choice. The reason is, they also need adaptation to support their best performance when facing their next opponent.
Moreover, according to the chairman of PSSI, Garuda Muda still has a great chance to appear at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Therefore, the match against Guinea U-23 as the last resort must be utilized optimally.
"We have to fight in the match against Guinea U-23. If we raise the white flag, yes, our chances of going to the Olympics are gone," he said.
The U-23 Indonesian national team still has one chance to be able to appear at the 2024 Paris Olympics through a playoffs match against Africa's U-23 2023 Africa Cup, Guinea U-23.
Based on FIFA rankings released in April 2024, in the senior level national team, Guinea occupies the 76th FIFA ladder with 1,324.65 points. Meanwhile, Indonesia is ranked 134th FIFA with 1102.7 points.