Women's National Team Players Had Stress Faced With Netizens' Scorn After Being Slaughtered By Australia 18-0

Indonesia vs Australia women's national team (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The coach of the Indonesian women's national team, Rudy Eka Priyambada, said that his players had been stressed by the ridicule that emerged after they lost 0-18 to Australia in the 2022 Asian Cup Group B match, last Friday.

"They are a little stressed because they lost 0-18, then saw comments from 'netizen' friends. These female soccer players are sensitive, so please cooperate with us to always support us," said Rudy, quoted from Antara, Monday, January 24.

However, the 39-year-old tactician said that the mental condition of his squad was slowly improving.

They are able to accept gracefully that whatever the outcome of the match in the Asian Cup is a process to be better.

Instead of sinking into sadness, the Indonesian women's national team took the defeat to Australia as an important lesson.

"The players saw how Sam Kerr played (Samantha Kerr, FIFA's second-best player in the world 2021-ed), then how the muscles, their lifestyle. The defeat to Australia was not a disgrace," said Rudy.

Rudy emphasized that all the insults directed at his squad after being "slaughtered" by Australia would not change the situation.

One of the negative sentences that he had known was "it's better to lose 0-3 because 'walk out' than lose 0-18".

"In fact, without trying, we will never know how far our quality is in a high-level tournament, the Asian level," said Rudy.

Rudy Eka also hopes that the result of the match versus Australia will wake the national women's football from sleep.

PSSI, he continued, ideally could make a policy that could give birth to many talented female footballers.

"Now at PSSI, there is an Indonesian Women's Football Association. So now how about the contribution, cooperation between federations and associations to create new female soccer players. Indeed, it is not easy. But we all have to work hard," said Rudy.

Compared to its competitors in Group B of the 2022 Women's Asian Cup, namely Australia, Thailand, and the Philippines, Indonesia is the country with the lowest FIFA ranking. As of December 10, 2021, the Indonesian women's national team is in the 94th position of FIFA. The Philippines sits at 64th, Thailand at 38th and Australia sits at 11th FIFA.

Indonesia also came to the tournament without active players in the women's league because the competition was abolished in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2019 Indonesian Women's League 1 became the first and last regular women's soccer competition to date.

Next in Group B of the 2022 Women's Asian Cup, Indonesia will face Thailand in Mumbai, India, on Monday today, starting at 19.00 western Indonesia time.