REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia U-20 national team coach Indra Sjafri believes that his team gained a lot of very important experience by participating in the Seoul Earth on Us Cup 2024 tournament in South Korea (South Korea).

In that tournament, Indonesia U-20 won 2-1 over Argentina, lost 0-2 to Thailand, and lost 0-3 to hosts South Korea in the last match played Sunday (1/9/2024).

“First of all, I would like to thank the committee for inviting us to participate in this event. And for ourselves, a lot of benefits we got, be it the first, second, and third game today. Especially today South Korea, a team that has been very good, both in their individual and tactical teams,” Indra told a news conference, citing audio recordings received by the newspaper.

“For the Indonesian team, we lost but we felt the progress of this team from the first half to the second half. Although there are still mistakes here and there, the players are developing enough,” he added.

Garuda Muda plays in South Korea with fairly close match time intervals. But Indra called that not a problem. Because in the qualifiers for the U-20 Asia Cup, which will be held at the end of September, the U-20 team will also have to play with a close range of matches.

“For us, there is really no problem because in next month's AFC U-20 qualifiers there will be matches with this interval duration. So there is no problem,” said the figure who successfully led Indonesia to win the 2023 SEA Games gold medal and the 2024 AFF U-19 Cup champion.

Meanwhile, Indonesian national defender Meshaal Osman said participation in the tournament was like a reward for him and his teammates because they could face strong enough teams.

“This tournament gives us a lot of experience. Today's match was a tough match, a good match. Korea performed well and we wanted to fight, and the result was a defeat but we gained experience,” said the player who now strengthens PSBS Biak.

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