Discussing The Indonesian National Team, Australian Media Equates Tottenham Hotspur

JAKARTA - Australian media, The Rour, discussed the strength of the Indonesian national team ahead of the continued match of the 2026 World Cup Qualification Third Round. The media gave praise and said the Garuda Squad had capabilities such as Tottenham Hotspur.

In its review, The Roar predicts Australia's chances of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. They also reviewed the Indonesian national team as the team that Socceroos will face on March 20, 2025.

When reviewing the team's strength, the media said that the Garuda Squad had extraordinary potential. In fact, The Roar said that Indonesia is like the country's Tottenham Hotspur version.

"If Tottenham Hotspur has a country, Indonesia is the answer," wrote The Rour, quoted on Friday, January 17, 2025.

"It's hard to understand what happened to Garuda. This team is outstanding in this phase, with six points."

"The heroic victory over Saudi Arabia at home is clearly the peak of team performance, reinforced by the large number of newly naturalized Dutch-born players placing them in third place in the standings thanks to a better goal difference," wrote The Rour again.

Furthermore, The Roar also said that the Indonesian national team reaped unsatisfactory results when appearing in the 2024 AFF Cup. However, according to them, this record cannot be a benchmark for the weakening Garuda Team.

"Indonesia's poor performance in the 2024 AFF Cup has not dampened much optimism because Indonesia brought a much weaker squad despite including several key players from the 2026 World Cup Qualification," wrote The Rour.

However, The Roar highlighted that the Indonesian national team will not be easy because it will play the remaining four matches with the new coach, Patrick Kluivert, who replaces Shin Tae-yong.

"However, they will play four games left under the new coach. Shin Tae-yong, a South Korean coach who is famous for winning South Korea's 2-0 over Germany at the 2018 World Cup, a result he repeated against Saudi Arabia this time, has left."

"Shin Tae-yong's replacement is Patrick Kluivert, whose playing career was brilliantly overshadowed by his bad record as a coach."

"Shin's dismissal surprised many Indonesians, who praised the South Korean coach for his contribution to Indonesia's rise."

"It was not surprising that they were furious at the dismissal and responded by booing Kluiver after the Dutch coach landed in Indonesia," The Rour said.