Kandas In The 2026 U-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers, Vanenburg Singgung Minutes Playing In The Club

JAKARTA - The U-23 Indonesian national team coach, Gerald Vanenburg, touched on the importance of playing minutes at each player's club. This was stated after the Garuda Muda squad lost 0-1 against South Korea U-23.

The meeting of the two teams took place in the final match of the 2026 U-23 Asian Cup Qualification group phase, Tuesday, September 9, 2025, WIB night. This defeat made Garuda Muda fail to qualify for the 2026 U-23 Asian Cup finals.

After the match, Vanenburg said that his players needed more minutes to play when they returned to their respective teams. This is so that they can be even more prepared when they have to undergo a similar tournament.

"When they return to the club, it takes hours to fly to play so that when they face a tournament like this, they are ready," Vanenburg said at a press conference after the match at the Gelora Delta Sidoarjo Stadium, Wednesday, September 10, 2025.

On the other hand, when the host's performance did not match expectations, South Korea showed its spurs as a team that had won the 2020 edition of the U-23 Asian Cup.

Of the three qualifying round matches, Lee Min-sung's team performed perfectly because they won three matches that had been played and recorded 13 goals and without conceding.

Vanenburg said South Korea's performance could not be separated from their regular players in the South Korean football competition, K-League.

"If we look at the example in South Korea, they also have that competition. Every week, those who play today will definitely play every week with high flying hours. So, that's necessary," said the Dutch coach.

Even though in the end it failed to advance to the main round of the 2026 U-23 Asian Cup, Vanenburg kept looking forward and made every match that was played an effort to learn the team.

He also did not forget to thank the supporters for the support who are always busy every time they compete.

"Thank you supporters, we continue to look forward and continue to learn from each match to be even better."

"You can see, our physical and mental are good enough. We conceded just six minutes into the game. However, the players have improved better."

"I admit that South Korea has a good team. However, I also give awards to Indonesian U-23 players who can last for 90 minutes, work hard, and continue to grow," said Vanenburg.