Eliminating South Korea, Indonesia One More Victory to the Paris Olympics
Shin Tae-yong provides a new history for Indonesia. On the other hand, he stopped South Korea's good achievements.
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DOHA, FRIDAY — The Indonesian U-23 team is one step closer to realizing its dream and ambition to reach the 2024 Paris Olympics. Victory over South Korea via a penalty shootout 11-10 in the quarter-finals U-23 Asian Cup< /a> 2024, Friday (26/4/2024) early morning WIB, at the Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha, making "Young Garuda" only need one more win to appear at the biggest sporting event in the world.
In 120 minutes of battle, the two teams drew 2-2. South Korea responded to the collection of two goals by Indonesian striker, Rafael Struick, through the suicide of Indonesian defender, Komang Teguh, and Jeong Sang-bin's kick.
Next, Indonesia will face the winner of the Uzbekistan vs. Saudi Arabia match in the semifinals, which will take place on Friday at 9:00 PM WIB at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. Rizky Ridho and his team will secure a direct ticket to Paris 2024 if they are able to make it to the finals.
If they lose in the semifinals, Indonesia can still secure an automatic spot for the last Asian ticket in the third place playoff. The match will bring together two teams who both suffered defeats in the semifinals.
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The last time Indonesia qualified for the Olympics was in the 1956 Melbourne edition. Indonesia also came close to qualifying for the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but lost on penalties to North Korea in the final qualifying match.
As Indonesia is on the verge of participating in its second Olympics, South Korea failed to maintain its trend of participation in the men's soccer event at the Olympics that they have achieved since Seoul 1988. South Korea is the Asian team with the longest streak of consecutive Olympic participations, which is 10 editions.
They competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which was the last time the Olympics was participated in by the senior national team. Since FIFA implemented regulations that require the Olympics to be participated in by the U-23 team starting from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, South Korea has always advanced to the final tournament in nine editions until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
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Apart from the ambition of pursuing Olympic tickets, reaching the semifinals of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup is a new historic milestone for Indonesian football. This is the highest achievement that Indonesia has ever reached in an official tournament of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for both age groups and senior teams, since entering the new millennium.
Previously, the Indonesian U-17 team reached the semi-finals of the 1990 Asian U-16 Cup. The Indonesian U-20 team also became the champion of the AFC Youth Championship (U-20) in 1961. At that time, the championship title was shared with Burma (Myanmar) because both teams played a goalless draw.
Second kick
Indonesia's certainty of holding a semifinal ticket was sealed by the calm execution of a penalty from left wing defender Pratama Arhan. The player from Suwon FC took the second kick after also successfully beating the South Korean goalkeeper, Baek Jong-bum.
Before Arhan conquered Baek, Indonesian goalkeeper Ernando Ari was able to save the 12th execution of South Korean player Lee Kang-hee. In addition to Lee, Ernando was also able to block the fifth shooter of South Korea, Kang Sang-yong.
Apart from Arhan, striker Ramadhan Sananta also successfully conquered the South Korean goalkeeper on two penalty shootout occasions. Eight other Indonesian players who were able to execute penalty kicks well include Rafael, Marselino Ferdinan, Justin Hubner, Jeam Kelly Sroyer, Rizky Ridho, Muhammad Ferrari, and Ernando.
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As for the only Indonesian player who failed to carry out his duties, it was midfielder Arkhan Fikri. If Arkhan could have scored a goal, "Garuda Muda" would have secured a ticket to the quarter-finals much earlier.
Rafael's "Brace".
In 120 minutes of the match, Indonesia showed that it had equal quality to South Korea, the owner of one U-23 Asian Cup trophy. Rafael scored a brace or two goals and became the first and only player to score against South Korea in Qatar 2024.
Rafael has boosted the morale of the Garuda Muda squad with a quick goal in the 15th minute. He created a beautiful goal with a curved shot from outside the penalty box. That was Indonesia's first accurate shot on target in the quarterfinal match.
Rafael's shot utilized a high technique. He kicked the ball with the tip of his right foot, making the direction of the ball's spin difficult to predict. The South Korean goalkeeper's reach could not catch up to the ball as it flew above his fingertips. Rafael's strike then slammed into the left corner side of South Korea's goalpost.
Marselino Ferdinand, Indonesia's left winger, also had a golden opportunity when the match was at 32 minutes. A one-two pass with Rafael from Marselino made the Persebaya Surabaya-trained player receive the ball in front of South Korea's goal. Unfortunately, Marselino's shot missed to the left of South Korea's goal.
South Korea gained momentum when they scored a response goal in the 45th minute. A header from South Korea's left winger, Eom Ji-sung, managed to beat Ernando due to a deflection off the shoulder of Indonesian defender Komang Teguh. This caused the ball to change direction. The goal for South Korea was then counted as an own goal from the player from Borneo FC.
However, the "Taegeuk Squadron's" opportunity to rise again was once again dashed by Rafael. He scored the second goal in the 45+3 minute. The ADO Den Haag striker made good use of the poor anticipation of two South Korean defenders, number 8 and 2, towards a long pass from Ivar Jenner. Standing between the two opposing defenders, Rafael was able to release a shot to score the second goal.
Rafael almost scored a hat trick five minutes later. However, his shot to continue Witan Sulaeman's shot was pushed over the crossbar by the South Korean goalkeeper.
In the second half, Indonesia's domination of the game was still maintained. Garuda Muda was on the rise after South Korean striker, Lee Young-jun, received a red card for trampling Justin in the 70th minute.
Unfortunately, Indonesia failed to maintain its advantage in the match. Through a quick counter-attack, taking advantage of Indonesia's failure to maximize their corner kicks, Jeong Sang-bin equalized the position when the match was at 84 minutes.
Garuda Muda continues to chase after goals in the remaining second half until the 2 x 15-minute extra time. However, the disciplined performance of the Taegeuk Forces' players caused Indonesia to fail to achieve victory before the penalty shootout drama.
Throughout the 120 minutes of the match, Indonesia was more superior with a ball possession of 53 percent and 21 shots, with five of them being on target. Meanwhile, South Korea only managed to release eight shots, and only two were directed towards the goal.
The performance of South Korea made their coach, Hwang Sun-hong, frustrated. Several times he expressed strong verbal protests against referee Shaun Evans' decisions. The climax came when Evans gave Hwang a red card in the 90+7th minute.