Daily Times

Indonesia coach Shin Tae-yong believes his team can continue to challenge for a place at the World Cup finals, despite reaching the halfway point in Asia’s third round of preliminaries bottom of their qualifying group. Indonesia were handed a 4-0 thrashing by their visitors in front of a packed Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Friday to remain on three points from five games in the region’s qualifiers for the 2026 finals. Shin, however, was upbeat about his side’s chances with five matches remaining in the current phase of preliminaries. “I want to play these third-round matches without any regrets and I hope we are still able to get third or fourth in the table,” said the South Korean. “I can’t guarantee that we will, but I still want to challenge. “As a manger it’s unavoidable to have some pressure and I need to embrace that. I want to see the players working as one team and still challenging for the playoff round.”