Patrick Kluivert Gives Up On His Position After Indonesia Fails To Go To The 2026 World Cup
JAKARTA - The coach of the Indonesian national team, Patrick Kluivert, admitted that he did not know his future after the Garuda squad was confirmed to have failed to advance to the 2026 World Cup finals after losing 0'1 to Iraq on Sunday.
In the previous Asian zone 2026 World Cup qualifying Group B match which was also played at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, Jeddah, the Indonesian national team lost 2-3 to host Saudi Arabia. Both defeats ensured that the Indonesian national team failed to advance to the final round or towards the fifth round.
"There is currently no plan. We need to reflect on what we have done, but I really don't have the answer," Kluiver said at a press conference after the match, quoted from an audio recording received by reporters on Sunday.
"I don't know. I really don't know what will happen," he continued.
The former Barcelona striker and the Dutch national team were appointed by PSSI to become the coach of the Indonesian national team since January 8. He replaced South Korean coach Shin Tae-yong who was sacked by PSSI on January 6.
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Kluivert's debut in takhodai for the Indonesian national team was marked with bitter results, namely the 1-5 defeat to Australia in the Group C match for the third round of the Asian zone 2026 World Cup qualifiers which took place in March.
The results obtained by the Garuda team then improved in the second match of Kluivert. The Indonesian national team won 1-0 over Bahrain in the third round of Group C match of the Asian 2026 World Cup qualifiers which took place in March. Indonesia won again with the same score in the Group C match when they hosted China in June.
In the last match of Group C, Indonesia was forced to surrender 0-6 during a visit to Japan's headquarters. However, thanks to previous results, Indonesia still has the right to advance to the fourth round of the Asian zone 2026 World Cup qualifiers by taking fourth place.
To prepare the team for the fourth round, Indonesia under Kluivert underwent two trial matches in early September in East Java. In the first test match, Indonesia won 6-0 over Taiwan, but Kluivert troops were then held to a 0-0 draw by Lebanon in the second test match.