Four Criteria For Assessment Of Indonesian Steps To Qualify For The Last 16 Of The 2023 Asian Cup

The excitement of the Indonesian TIMnas goalkeeper, Ernando Ari Sutaryadi after defeating Vietnam 1-0 in the 2023 Asian Cup Group D match in Qatar, Friday (19/1/2024). (Doc. PSSI)

JAKARTA - The struggle of the Indonesian football national team in the 2023 Asian Cup still leaves one match next week against the Asian giants Japan, Wednesday (24/1).

From the two Group D preliminary matches that have been played, Indonesia has won one victory against Vietnam in the second match. Meanwhile, in the opening match against Iraq, coach Shin Tae-yong's team did not end the game positively.

The resistance given by Indonesia has not been able to break the strength of Iraq, which is much superior in FIFA rankings. Indonesia was only able to score one goal back against the team nicknamed the Mesopotamian Lion, before finally being sidelined with a final score of 1-3.

Luck finally sided with Indonesia in the second match. The victory of the Garuda Squad over Vietnam was achieved with a narrow score of 1-0, which was achieved thanks to a penalty prize that was successfully executed by Asnawi Mangkualam.

Indonesia's victory ensured that Vietnam's fate, which became the first team to be eliminated from the group stage, had not yet entered match day 3.

On the other hand, Indonesia, which now has three winning points, has not been statistically confirmed safe to advance to the round of 16 in the football tournament spread across the Asian continent.

To this day, Sunday, Indonesia is in second place in the third-ranked team standings.

Based on data on the official AFC website, Indonesia is under Bahrain, which both have three points of the match.

The assessment of the group stage ranking in the AFC tournament not only has the capital to get points collected from the matches played, but there are a total of four assessment references.

The four criteria in question are the number of match points, goal difference, goal productivity, and discipline.

If the first indicator finds the same point, then the next assessment parameter uses the goal difference from the game that has been played. The bigger the goal difference, the more profitable the team standings.

If a goal difference is found, the assessment shifts to the aspect of the number of goals scored during the three matches played.

If similarity is found, the last indicator seen is discipline, which includes how many yellow cards or red cards each team receives.

To qualify from the 2023 Asian Cup group stage, there are 16 teams that have the right to advance. With the composition of 12 teams as winners and group runners-up, and the remaining four are the best teams in third place.

Furthermore, although Indonesia has points equivalent to Bahrain, the Garuda Squad is more inferior than its competitors in terms of discipline.

Of the two matches that have been played, Indonesia has received four yellow cards, while Bahrain has only three of the two Group E matches.

Indonesia was rewarded with two yellow cards each against Iraq and Vietnam. Meanwhile Bahrain got two yellow cards against South Korea, and one card against Malaysia.

Under Indonesia, namely in third and fourth positions there are Syria and Tajikistan. Both teams pocketed only one point, but Tajikistan was in fourth place because they received a red card against Qatar's home team in the second match.

Furthermore, there is Palestine in fifth place who also recorded one point. Unfortunately Palestine lost in terms of goal difference of -3, while Syria and Tajikistan were -1 goals each.

In the last position there is Oman with 0 points, but it is included in the calculation of the best third team because it only has a goal difference of -1 from the matches that have been played.