[스포츠조선 김대식 기자]Indonesia coach Shin Tae-yong seems to have been upset about losing to China, which played extreme defensive soccer. Indonesia, led by coach Shin Tae-yong, lost 1-2 in the 4th game of Group C of the 2026 North, Central America World Cup Asia 3rd qualifying round against China held at the Qingdao Youth Soccer Stadium in Qingdao, China on the 15th (Korean time). Indonesia maintained 5th place in the group, but was level on points with China, the last place. Due to the naturalization policy, Indonesia was expected to win because it was evaluated that it was not inferior to China in terms of objective power. Indonesia had the upper hand against China, but lost in a battle of concentration in the 21st minute of the first half from China’s free kick. The kick went up and the Chinese player won the aerial ball, but at this time, Zhang Shengrong showed his fighting spirit and saved the ball, and Indonesia finished the game calmly in front of the goal. I was giving it, but my concentration momentarily broke down and I ended up conceding a point.
China scored the first goal and played a more defensive game. Indonesia had the initiative, but it was not easy to break through China’s defensive wall. The game did not go as Indonesia wanted.
A ball contest took place at the halfway line in the 44th minute of the first half. Indonesian players, desperate for an equalizer, rushed to get the ball without paying attention to the defensive line. The player who actually possessed the ball was Warrant Officer Gao. Warrant Officer Gao immediately sent a pass to Zhang Wening, who calmly scored, giving China a two-goal lead. It was not the type of game that coach Shin Tae-yong wanted.
In the second half, Indonesia launched a counterattack, but it was not easy. China blatantly slowed down the tempo of the game and deployed two lines of defense. Indonesia has been in good spirits lately, but they have never faced a team that plays defensive soccer like this, so it was difficult to create scoring opportunities. In the 40th minute of the second half, Indonesia’s Tom Haye scored a comeback goal thanks to Arhan’s long throw-in strategy, but in the end, they were unable to equalize. Couldn’t create it. Japan and Australia were unable to decide the winner, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain also drew, and if Indonesia had won against China, it could have climbed to second place in Group C, following Japan, but lost and everything was in vain.
After the game, coach Shin Tae-yong seemed proud of Indonesia’s soccer performance against China. He did not stop making bold statements. First of all, he said, “I want to say congratulations to China. Both we and China were desperate to win. I think China was more desperate. Even though they lost, the players did their best and showed a good game. It ended here. “Because that’s not the case, I’ll prepare better next time and try to play a good game,” he said, expressing his thoughts about the game.
What Coach Shin Tae-yong found disappointing about this day’s game was the concentration of the Indonesian players. He said, “Concentration on the ball was the problem for both the first and second runs. If we had focused a little more when conceding the first run, that wouldn’t have happened. It’s unfortunate. We couldn’t have held the ball clearly for the second run either.” He delivered a message to the players, saying, “If we had been able to get it with our own ball, we would not have conceded a goal. We need to stick to the ball and fight to get it with our own ball.”
Afterwards, Chinese reporters asked coach Shin Tae-yong a question about whether their country’s players performed better than the European players brought in from Indonesia. Coach Shin Tae-yong then did not back down and said, “As you can see, we were ahead in today’s game by 7:3. I think it was about 8:2 in the second half. Overall, we lost because we had no goal luck, but we dominated China in the rest of the game. A better game at home next time.” “I will prepare to win,” he said, asserting that Indonesia played a better game against China.
This was followed by a question about how Indonesia seemed to have difficulty preventing China’s counterattack. Coach Shin Tae-yong then expressed his thoughts confidently, saying, “I can’t excuse the loss after conceding two goals, but I didn’t know that Chinese soccer was a ball of shit.”
In addition, “We were prepared, but the decisive factor was that our player waited for the ball to come out and conceded a goal when the ball came out. I think we can catch a team that plays like this the next time we meet. I just think we need to prepare better.” We pledged not to lose against China while playing soccer.
Until the end, coach Shin Tae-yong said, “We reflected on ourselves because we were weak in possession of the ball in the game against Bahrain. As soon as we came to China, we prepared for two days how we would play against China. The players performed 100%. They made the plays we wanted to play well. Goal luck followed. “We just lost,” he said, adding that in terms of content, he was never pushed back by China.
