Naturalized players seen from the China - Indonesia match

The only Southeast Asian team and the first to reach the 3rd qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia and the 3 dreamy 3-point wins of Indonesia under Shin Tae Yong recently are making the whole continent and the region look up. The army of the archipelago country held consecutive draws against Australia, Saudi Arabia and even almost won against Bahrain is not lucky, it is not a mediocre team.

However, in the 4th match against China - a team that had lost all 3 previous matches, the story of Indonesia or "Netherlands 2" is becoming more noisy and worth mentioning than ever after what happened at the 50,000-seat Qingdao stadium.

In this match, Mr. Shin Tae Yong continued to use 9/11 naturalized Dutch players in the first half and similarly, only 2 players born in Indonesia were named in the second half, equivalent to the team having 9 naturalized players on the field. The Southeast Asian team held the ball 76% of the time, passed the ball continuously and more persistently but could not penetrate the defense that knew how to cover and retreat deep on the home side.

After the match, Mr. Shin Tae Yong said that the Chinese players played with more motivation than the home team, so they got better results, especially scoring 2 goals in the first half. But in reality, the story is not simply about whether there is motivation or not, but the main thing is the way of "knowing the enemy, knowing yourself" from the home team, so that the red team knows how to block the opponent from all directions, at the same time, taking advantage of the smallest, most unexpected moments to coordinate coherently and score quickly, while defending tightly to protect the results.

Of course, the naturalized team in particular and the Indonesian team played with great effort, with full strength in all lines against the home team. It is not difficult to explain after they had to bitterly accept 2 goals in the first half, first of all from both the coach and the players, it was the illusion of strength after the past 3 matches. It seems that Shin Tae Yong and his players underestimated the Chinese team, followed the public's assessment, entered the match subjectively, carelessly and immediately suffered dire consequences.

The situation of not following the ball all the way to the end of the touchline in the 22nd minute leading to the goal to break the deadlock was the first "deadly example". The fact that a brand new naturalized center-back with a transfer value higher than the entire Vietnam National Team (Mees Hilgers) neglected to mark his opponent and let him dribble past and shoot into the goal was a worthy lesson for everyone. Using naturalized center-back Calvin Verdronk to play left center-back instead of using domestic player Rizky Ridho was certainly a mistake from the captain's personnel arrangement. And more than that, after the match, the professional assessment with the lowest score of the match for another naturalized defender (Shayne Pattynama) was a continuous painful blow to the Indonesian Football Federation, the Indonesian National Team and many Indonesian fans after the initial exhilarating victories and then the humiliating direct punches.

To see, the third round of the World Cup in Asia is not an easy game for anyone, especially for teams that are participating for the first time like Vietnam, Indonesia and even the giant Thailand. Not having to wait for top-class teams like Iran, Korea or Japan, even second-class teams like China, Bahrain... are also opponents that are not easy to play against as someone once thought or assessed.

In the 4th match, Indonesia was full of spirit after 3 unbeaten matches, even almost winning 3 points to the admiration of the whole continent, finally had to expose the bitter truth when leaving the field with a defeat that could not be explained or regretted, could not complain about the referee or the organizers, could not file a lawsuit despite being upset because of the unexpected result. The head coach made mistakes in his approach to the match, made mistakes in his personnel arrangement, could not turn the situation around, let the opponent figure out his moves, while his students, despite trying, were still immature in important moments, pivotal situations...

In total, it is weak will, weak strength, individual and collective do not multiply fighting power so clearly cannot achieve the expected goal, as in the original theory.

It can also be seen that the story of naturalizing players to improve the quality of the national team is something that needs to be done and done well, but for Indonesia after the loss to China (1-2) mentioned above, everything is starting to show that it is not all rosy. The upcoming matches against high-class opponents will paint a more specific and vivid picture of this issue, of the Indonesian team (some people call it the Netherlands 2), of what should be done, what should absolutely be avoided...

Of course, any experience and lesson in football is valuable for many teams, including Vietnam. Coach Kim Sang Sik of the Vietnam National Team will certainly have to worry about how to use Nguyen Xuan Son, Jason Quang Vinh... and some other Vietnamese-American players in the Vietnam National Team at the AFF Cup at the end of this year, how beneficial they are in the short term and long term, and countless other things that reality will clearly show.