Indonesian U20 women's coach 'hurt' when undefeated but still no ticket to Asian tournament

Indonesia coach Akira Higashiyama was saddened when he failed to qualify for the 2026 AFC U20 Women's Championship.

Coach Akira Higashiyama could not help the Indonesian U20 women's team win a ticket to the finals - Photo: PSSI

Indonesia U20 Women's Team had an impressive qualifying campaign with an unbeaten record. In the final match of Group D, they had a resounding 4-0 victory over Turkmenistan on the evening of August 10.

This victory helped Indonesia U20 women finish the qualifying round in second place in Group D with 5 points after 3 matches, an impressive unbeaten record. Before that, they held India U20 women to a 0-0 draw and drew Myanmar U20 women 2-2.

However, India still performed outstandingly with 7 points to win the top spot in the group and the only ticket in group D.

Speaking after the final match of the qualifying round, coach Akira Higashiyama, despite his sadness, was still satisfied with the performance of his players. "I am very happy with the 3 points we got. We created many opportunities from our attacks and kept a clean sheet. I was really surprised with the performance of the players" - Mr. Akira shared.

U20 women's team is a promising generation of Indonesian football players - Photo: PSSI

The Japanese strategist also added: "The players always played with the highest fighting spirit. However, unfortunately we did not achieve our goal, but the whole team can be proud of having tried our best."

This is a rather regrettable result for Indonesian women's football, as they have shown a promising face. Jordan, Bangladesh, and Chinese Taipei are the 3 best second-placed teams and have "survival tickets" to the 2026 finals.

Sharing the same fate with Indonesia are other second-placed teams such as Hong Kong, Iran, Lebanon and Nepal.

Southeast Asia has only two representatives in next year's tournament: Vietnam and host Thailand.

THANH DINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hlv-u20-nu-indonesia-dau-don-khi-bat-bai-van-khong-co-ve-du-giai-chau-a-20250811091215321.htm