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    Jay Idzes on Indonesia’s World Cup Hopes: ‘Difficult, But Not Impossible’

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    By Antara

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    Jay Idzes on Indonesia's World Cup Hopes: 'Difficult, But Not Impossible'

    TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Jay Idzes, the captain of the Indonesian national team, is approaching the two fourth-round matches of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers with high confidence. He knows that reaching the final round in the United States, Canada, and Mexico will be challenging, but not impossible.At the press conference before Tuesday, October 7, 2025’s match against Saudi Arabia at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Idzes chose to describe Indonesia’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup as “difficult” rather than “impossible.” “It’s gonna be not easy. It’s not impossible, but it’s not easy either. I think it’s gonna be a great game between two great teams. Great teams, so we are looking forward to it,” said the Sassuolo defender.The Indonesian national team will face Saudi Arabia on Thursday, October 9, 2025, at 12:15 AM WIB (Western Indonesia Time) and Iraq three days later at the same venue. Coach Patrick Kluivert referred to these two matches as finals given the importance of points for Indonesia to maintain hope of automatically qualifying as group champions.Three teams from each of the two groups will compete for the two automatic qualifying spots for the 2026 World Cup. The group winners will qualify. The second-place team will advance to the fifth round of qualifiers, and the third-place team will be eliminated.For Idzes, the match in Jeddah is not a new experience. He played at the same stadium a year ago when Indonesia tied Saudi Arabia 1-1. According to Idzes, the current team’s main strengths are its togetherness and the players’ growing understanding of each other. “We have been together for a longer time. We now know how everybody plays and understand the system we want to play,” he said, explaining the differences between Indonesia’s strengths in 2024 and 2025.Although the road to the World Cup is still long and difficult, Idzes chooses to be optimistic but realistic. “We are closer now than last year, but that doesn’t change our objective. So, yes, there’s not much difference; we’re just a little closer, and we’ve been playing for longer time,” he said.Editor’s Choice: FIFA Sanctions Seven Naturalized Players and Malaysian Football AssociationClick here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News