{"id":22124,"date":"2025-10-06T06:04:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T06:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=22124"},"modified":"2025-10-06T06:04:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T06:04:17","slug":"indonesia-sense-world-cup-chance-as-asian-qualifying-reaches-climax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=22124","title":{"rendered":"Indonesia sense World Cup chance as Asian qualifying reaches climax"},"content":{"rendered":"
World Cup qualifying in Asia reaches its climax over the next week with Patrick Kluivert’s Indonesia among six countries vying for two remaining spots from the region.<\/p>\n

The football-mad nation of nearly 300 million people is on the verge of its first World Cup since gaining independence from the Dutch in 1945.<\/p>\n

Indonesian football authorities have looked to the Netherlands to achieve it, bringing in legendary Dutch striker Kluivert as coach in January.<\/p>\n

They have also naturalised more than a dozen players born in the Netherlands but with family ties to the Southeast Asian country.<\/p>\n

It comes three years after Indonesian football was plunged into mourning when 135 people were killed in a stadium crush during a domestic game.<\/p>\n

“The whole country needs to stand behind us,” said Kluivert, the former Netherlands and Barcelona great whose side faces Iraq and Saudi Arabia in Group B.<\/p>\n

There are two groups in this stage of Asian qualifying, each with three teams that will all face each other once.<\/p>\n

The teams that finish top of each group qualify for next year’s showpiece in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

The 2026 World Cup has been expanded to 48 teams from 32, giving the likes of Indonesia a better chance of qualifying.<\/p>\n

“We are doing our utmost best to perform at the highest level and prepare the players as good as possible,” said Kluivert.<\/p>\n

“Inshallah (God willing) we are ready to make the country proud of us.”<\/p>\n

Indonesia will have to do it the hard way, with Saudi Arabia staging all the games in Group B and so having home advantage.<\/p>\n

Indonesia and Saudi Arabia meet on Wednesday in Jeddah to kickstart the action.<\/p>\n

Kluivert, whose coaching career has never lived up to his stellar playing days, has won three of his six games in charge, losing two and drawing one.<\/p>\n

The Saudis will be favourites to progress out of the group and are now back under French coach Herve Renard following the sacking of Italian Roberto Mancini a year ago.<\/p>\n

Renard masterminded the Saudis’ shock 2-1 win over Lionel Messi’s eventual champions Argentina at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n

Group A comprises Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, who are bidding to reach the finals for the first time.<\/p>\n

That group will play all its games in Qatar, giving the reigning Asian champions an undeniable advantage.<\/p>\n

Qatar appointed former Spain and Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui in May, following his sacking by West Ham United.<\/p>\n

Qatar begin the Group A action in Doha against Oman.<\/p>\n

The runners-up in the two groups will meet in a two-legged tie in November, with the winner going into a intercontinental playoff.<\/p>\n

Six teams from Asia have already guaranteed qualification: Japan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Iran, Jordan and Australia.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Cup qualifying in Asia reaches its climax over the next week with Patrick Kluivert’s Indonesia among six countries vying for two remaining spots from the region. The football-mad nation of nearly 300 million people is on the verge of its first World Cup since gaining independence from the Dutch in 1945. Indonesian football authorities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}