Patrick Kluivert’s words after his debut with the Indonesian National Team was tarnished are interesting to review. The reason is, the Garuda squad lost 1-5 to the Australian National Team in the continuation of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in the Asian Zone.
The Indonesian National Team Coach Patrick Kluivert said that his team had actually tried to show their best performance in that match. However, the opponent gave quite a tough fight.
The Indonesian National Team Lost
Yes, the Indonesian National Team lost against Australia in the seventh matchday of Group C in the third round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in the Asian zone. The match took place at the Sydney Football Stadium, Thursday (20/3/2025).
The five goals for the Australian National Team were scored by Martin Boyle (18′ (P)), Nishan Vellupillay (20′), Jackson Irvine (34′, 90′), and Lewis Miller (61′). Meanwhile, the Indonesian National Team was only able to reply with one goal through Ole Romeny’s action (78′).
Patrick Kluivert’s Reaction
Patrick Kluivert said the Indonesian National Team tried to show their best performance in the match. However, Australia put up quite a tough fight so that his team lost points.
“Of course, that’s my style of play. I think we’ve seen it since the beginning of the match, we dominated the game. I think we played better than Australia,” said Patrick Kluivert after the match.
The Dutch coach also regretted that Kevin Diks failed to score a goal through a penalty in the 8th minute. He believes that if there was a goal at that time, the final result would have been different.
“But unfortunately, how important it is to score a goal when the penalty is or not. Of course, what you do mentally is a big thing. If you score a goal and the score is 1-0, I’m sure this will be a different match,” said Patrick Kluivert.
“Unfortunately, you can’t score a penalty every time. However, it only happened at one moment, and that’s very unfortunate,” he added.
Drop in Ranking
The result put the Indonesian National Team in fourth place in Group C standings with six points. Meanwhile, the Socceroos – the nickname of the Australian National Team – are in second place with 10 points.
After playing against Australia, the Indonesian National Team will host Bahrain in Group C. The match will be held at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium (SUGBK), Jakarta, on March 25, 2025
