JAKARTA - The Indonesian national team will play a test match on the FIFA Matchday agenda against Timor Leste on Thursday night. Not only chasing victory, this match is also an opportunity for coach Shin Tae-yong to implement an important mission.
The first mission that will be pursued by Shin Tae-yong is to improve the ranking of the Indonesian national team in the FIFA rankings. Currently, the Garuda squad is in 166th position in the world.
One way to improve FIFA's ranking is to play matches that are officially recognized by FIFA, one of which is the test match against Timor Leste. PSSI as the Indonesian football federation also takes this seriously.
In order to boost the FIFA ranking of the Indonesian national team, PSSI even tried to arrange the FIFA Matchday schedule better. PSSI has also started negotiations to prepare for the FIFA Matchday duel in March.
Shifting to Shin Tae-yong's next mission, the South Korean coach made this match against Timor Leste as preparation for the U-23 AFF Cup and SEA Games. The two big agendas have been targeted by PSSI so that the national team can win the title.
The two tournaments were previously known to have concurrent paths, namely that both would utilize the strengths of players under the age of 23. With that note, Shin Tae-yong also started preparing the team framework since last year in order to be able to find young players who have good appearances and can lead the Indonesian national team to the final.
Lastly, Shin Tae-yong's mission is also quite important for the survival of the national team. Although he had mentioned that Timor Leste was not the opponent he expected because his quality was below the Garuda squad, this was also a good thing.
The reason is, in the test match later, Shin Tae-yong can maximize the match against Timor Leste to build the confidence of Indonesia's front players.
Behind the achievement of the Indonesian national team in the AFF Cup final, Shin Tae Yong admits that his children's front line is still relatively weak. For this reason, this match will be a place to find the best striker.
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