PSSI Asks Shin Tae-yong To Keep The Indonesian National Team Opportunities For The 2026 World Cup

Shin Tae-yong was asked to keep the chances of the Indonesian national team qualifying for the 2026 World Cup (doc. PSSI).

PSSI General Chair Erick Thohir asked Shin Tae-yong to keep the chances of the Indonesian national team qualifying for the 2026 edition of the World Cup.

Currently, the Garuda Squad is participating in the Third Round of the 2026 Asian Zone World Cup Qualification. The requirement to qualify for the 2026 World Cup from this stage is that Indonesia must finish in the top two of the group.

If the opportunity is not obtained, then the Garuda Squad must lock the third or fourth place of the group in the Third Round to be able to continue the journey to the Fourth Round Qualification.

Erick said that a number of evaluations had been carried out after the two unsatisfactory results obtained by the Indonesian national team in the last two matches.

"Including the evaluation for Shin Tae-yong that our target must be in the top four in the group. So, there is no bargaining," said Erick in Jakarta.

The Indonesian national team is currently in fifth position in the Group C standings for the Third Round of the 2026 World Cup Qualification with a collection of three points from four matches that have been played.

Shin Tae-yong's squad's position slumped after only playing a draw against Bahrain (2-2) and losing against China (1-2) in two actual away matches.

The chairman of PSSI hopes that the Indonesian national team can get points again when playing two home games next month, each against Japan (15 November 2024) and Saudi Arabia (19 November 2024).

"We will see again a maximum of two home games against Japan and Saudi Arabia, which are ranked far above us. Again, if we get points in these two matches, it could be savings to enter third or fourth positions," said the chairman of PSSI.

Meanwhile, in the Fourth Round of 2026 World Cup Qualification, only group winners were entitled to qualify for the 2026 World Cup finals.

If you become runners-up, you will continue to qualify for the Fifth Round of Qualification. For the fifth round, there is a two-legged match against the other runners-up from the Fourth Round.

The winner will play in the inter-confederation playoffs to fight for a ticket to the 2026 World Cup finals.