Indonesian U-23 National Team coach Shin Tae-yong (STY) admitted that he was optimistic that the Garuda Muda squad could qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics even though they lost against Uzbekistan in the Asian Cup semifinals.
“Uzbekistan is still a strong team, so congratulations to the Uzbekistan team. We still have the opportunity to advance to the Olympics,” said Shin Tae-yong as quoted on the official PSSI website in Jakarta, Tuesday.
Garuda Muda had to recognize Uzbekistan’s superiority with a score of 0-2 in the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup semifinal match at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha, Qatar, Monday (29/4).
STY said that his team had tried their best when facing Uzbekistan. However, in this match Uzbekistan played better.
“First of all, I appreciate the good effort from the players. I think Uzbekistan played well and gave a good effort too,” he said.
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He said the players seemed to have lost confidence. In fact, in the previous three matches, Garuda Muda performed very impressively by beating strong teams such as Australia, Jordan and South Korea.
“I think before starting the match, the players felt nervous. This affected our team so they couldn’t play well. Normally, we can play well like in the previous match,” he said.
The coach from South Korea said something that made him feel a little embarrassed, but he did not reveal what he meant.
Garuda Muda will prepare for the next match against Iraq to win third place to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“We will prepare well to qualify for the Olympics,” he said.
Rizky Ridho and his friends still have two opportunities to pocket tickets to take part in the highest sporting competition through the match against Iraq to win third place in the Asian Cup.
If you lose and are in fourth place, you will have a play-off match against representatives from Africa, Guinea.