Calvin Verdink: The Indonesian National Team Needs Luck In The Third Round Of The 2026 World Cup Qualification

JAKARTA - The Indonesian national team left-back, Calvin Verdonk, said he was happy because the Garuda Squad could continue the steps to the third round of the 2026 World Cup Qualification.

However, he also mentioned that the Garuda Squad needed a little luck to navigate this phase.

The third round of the 2026 World Cup Qualification will only run from September 5, 2024 to June 10, 2025. At that moment, the struggle of the Indonesian national team will obviously be more difficult considering that the opponents faced are strong countries in Asia such as South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, to Australia.

Calvin Verdonk said that the Indonesian national team needed luck when meeting strong teams to keep the opportunity for the 2026 World Cup finals.

"I don't know (who will be the opponent). Maybe Japan and South Korea. They are a good team," said Verdink about the possibility of a team that Indonesia should avoid in the third round of the 2026 World Cup Qualification.

"If we want to go further to the 2026 World Cup, we need a bit of luck about the opponents we will face," Verdok said in a statement after the match against the Philippines.

Even though on the way forward it will be tougher, the NEC player Nijmegen admits that he is not afraid. He felt that the Indonesian national team would not be inferior in front of the strong Asian teams that were subscribed to the World Cup.

"Of course we have to see first who will fight later. I am confident about this. We'll see," said Verdonk.

In the third round later, only the winning team and group runners-up will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup, aka only four slots. While the third and fourth place rankings of the standings must undergo the fourth round of qualifiers for the remaining two tickets.