Four Players Have Not Joined The First Exercise Of The Indonesian National Team

JAKARTA As many as four Indonesian national team players have not been able to join the inaugural training ahead of the 2026 Asian Zone World Cup Qualification second round match.

The inaugural exercise of the Garuda Squad took place at ABC Senayan Square, Jakarta, Tuesday, May 28, 2024, evening WIB. Of the 22 names who were called, only 18 players were present.

The four names who have not been able to join are Jay Idzes, Justin Hubner, Jordi Amat, and Pratama Arhan. They could not come for their own reasons.

The Indonesian national team coach, Shin Tae-yong, explained that Arhan was likely to fly from South Korea on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Then, Jordi will join on May 31, 2024.

"Untuk Jay karena dia masuk final playoffs (rebut tiket promosi ke Serie A bersama Venezia) maka mungkin baru akan sampai pada 5 Juni 2024," ujar juru taktik asal Korea Selatan tersebut.

The arrival, which was so tight with the match against Iraq (June 6, 2024) made it certain that Jay was absent from defending the Garuda Squad for the match.

Meanwhile, Justin only came to Indonesia after playing for Cerezo Osaka in J-League 1 on June 2, 2024.

"There will definitely be additional players, but who will be the extra player, yes, it was determined maybe three days or four days later from now," said Shin.

Before fighting Iraq and the Philippines in the second round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, Shin's squad first fought Tanzania on June 2, 2024 for trials.

Currently, Indonesia is in second place in Group F. The Red-White team only needs one more win from the two qualifying matches to get tickets to the third round.