Timor Leste U-20 Coach Makes Indonesia A Patokan For Football Development

JAKARTA - Timor Leste U-20 coach,madus Krishnan Ramasamy, admitted that Indonesia is a benchmark for soccer development in his country. The statement was made ahead of the meeting against the U-20 Indonesian national team in the 2025 U-20 Asian Cup Qualification.

The two teams are scheduled to meet in the second match of Group F, Friday, September 27, 2024, at the Madya Stadium, Senayan. He admitted that he did not have high expectations when he met the U-20 Indonesian national team.

Moreover, previously Timor Leste also had a group with Indonesia when appearing in the 2024 AFF U-19 Cup. At that time Timor Leste lost 2-6.

"This has become a habit when playing, always meeting Indonesia. I think our meeting is normal," said Ramasamy during a press conference on Tuesday, September 24, 2024.

"So, we feel that Indonesia can become a benchmark (measure benchmark) to assess our development (ball football)," said the coach.

If you look at the meeting records, both Indonesia and Timor Leste are familiar. The two teams often meet one of them in the U-20 Asian Cup Qualification.

In 2022, for example, Indonesia and Timor Leste will also compete for the 2023 U-20 Asian Cup Qualification. At that time, Indonesia won 4-0 over Timor Leste and finally came out as winners of the qualifying group and qualified for the final round, while Timor Leste finished third.

Prior to that, the two also met in the 2020 U-20 Asian Cup Qualification which was held in 2019. At that time, Indonesia, which was managed by Fakhri Husaini, won 3-1 over Timor Leste at the Madya Stadium.

Likewise in the 2018 U-19 Asian Cup Qualification, Indonesia and Timor Leste returned to one group. At that time Indonesia won 5-0, but failed to qualify for the finals because it only ranked third in the group.