The Indonesian team locked up the play-off qualification, setting the best record of a Southeast Asian team in the world preliminaries

Written by Han Bing Relying on a penalty kick from naturalized striker Romemeni, the Indonesian team defeated the national football team 1-0 at home and got the crucial three points to enter the play-offs. At the same time, the Indonesian team ended three winless streaks against the national football team: one was to end their 38-year winless record against the Chinese team since the 1987 King of Thailand Cup (the Hubei team played for the team to represent China, an unofficial game); The second and third are to end their 68-year winless record against the national football team at home and in official matches. For Indonesian football, the victory over the national football team is not exciting, but it is also a rare achievement in the history of the team.

In another round of 18 later in the game, the Indonesian team, which currently has 12 points, is confirmed to enter the play-offs due to the Saudi Arabian team's away defeat of Bahrain. This is the first time since the 1958 World Cup qualifiers that the Indonesian team has entered the play-offs of the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup. The Indonesian team has created the best result in the history of the team's World Qualifiers, and also created the best result of the Southeast Asian national team in the World Qualifiers. Thailand (2002 and 2018) and Vietnam (2022) have previously reached the final stage of the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup three times, but neither has reached the play-offs.

The match was attended by 69,661 spectators, second only to the 0-0 draw at home to Australia (70,059) in September last year, and the second-largest home audience in Asia for Indonesia's round of 18 match. To ensure security, Indonesia has deployed 3,270 police and security personnel. Before the game, fanatical Indonesian fans scrambled to enter the stadium and nearly knocked over the guardrail that maintained order outside the stadium.

In order to fully mobilize the atmosphere of the home stadium, the Indonesian Football Association and the two major fan organizations did their best. Indonesian Football Federation President Tohir invited Indonesian President Prabowo to the scene, as he had previously watched the Indonesian team win on two occasions. The Indonesian Football Association also arranged a grand performance before the game, with the veteran Indonesian rock band God Bless and the top singer Judika singing three famous Indonesian songs, including "Indonesia Pusaka", which can be called Indonesia's "second national anthem". (Xu Xiaofeng's masterpiece "Heart Love", which was popular all over the Chinese world in the 80s of the last century, is a cover version of this Indonesian folk song.) ）

Behind the goal at the Soekarno Stadium, two stands each played giant Tifo: the North Stand banner depicted the Indonesian mythological hero Gatot Kaca, holding a shield depicted with Garuda in his left hand and breaking through the castle with a knife in his right hand, a symbol of great power. The image of Gadot Kaga on the banner is a character from the popular mobile game "Decisive Peak" in Southeast Asia, which was developed by a Chinese mobile game company. The South Stand banner is Bart Simpson, the protagonist of the famous American anime "The Simpsons", riding Garuda to fly to the flags of the United States, Canada and Mexico, implying that the Indonesian team will impact the finals of the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico next year.

The Indonesian Football Association and fans have created enough atmosphere at home, and Indonesian coach Kluivert's starting lineup only sent seven naturalized players, which is the lowest number of naturalized players in the round of 18. In addition to centre-back Rido, forwards Kambuya and Maulana both made their first start in the round of 18, while right-wing-back Jacob Sayuri made his second start after hosting Japan last October. Naturalized striker Ayatollah Romeni, who scored the winning penalty for Indonesia, scored in his first three appearances for Indonesia, equalling Pele's 1957-1958 world record for consecutive goals in the first three games for the national team. Among them, against Bahrain and the national football team, his two goals scored two key six points for the Indonesian team.

After the game, Indonesian captain Izes led the whole team to shout slogans with a loudspeaker, driving the carnival atmosphere of the fans. The Indonesian media also praised the victory, with the headline of bolasport being "Indonesian team makes Chinese team dumb, Romemeni is terrible, Odello is brave", and the headline of Detik's sports section is "Indonesian team crushes China's World Cup dream", bola.com emphasizes that the Indonesian team has a net increase of 15.05 points in the world ranking points, and the world ranking has soared 6 places to 117. This is the highest ranking of an Indonesian team since the launch of FIFA's current world ranking system in 2018.

Indonesia coach Kluivert said after the game that he was satisfied with the win over the national team: "The training camp in Bali had a positive effect, we controlled the game and created enough chances. It's a very tough game and we need to work harder to build a better team. Indonesian President Prabowo, who was present in person, said: "Thank you for this victory, but there is still a long way to go to qualify for the World Cup. We have to beat Japan to secure the play-offs. ”

With Bahrain losing at home to Saudi Arabia, Indonesia qualified for the play-offs ahead of schedule. After beating Bahrain, the Saudi team reached 13 points, and in the final round of home against Australia, it needs to beat Australia by at least 5 goals to overtake the opponent and qualify directly, which is obviously very difficult. Unsurprisingly, the Saudi team will qualify for another play-off in their group and host their own group in the play-offs.