It is a long shot. Indonesia, as per the rankings is currently the 28th strongest team in AFC. And there are 8.5 slots available from this confederation for 2026 FIFA World Cup. As of now, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia are the top teams in AFC, followed by other GCC nations such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Oman. Iraq is also in the top-10 list. Indonesia got past the first round by defeating Brunei. In the second round, they need to compete against Iraq, Vietnam and Philippines, and all of them are ranked higher than them.
Even though there is only small chance for Indonesia to become one of the top AFC teams to have a ticket to the 2026 World Cup at least seeing how the Indonesian players fight in every match is extraordinary.
We all know that there are still many strong teams that Indonesia has to overcome but with strong determination and optimal play can make Indonesian football fans proud.
Of the several teams that will be Indonesia competitors it seems that Vietnam will be the team that makes it the most difficult for Indonesia because the Vietnamese national team always uses various methods to beat their enemies.
I remember when Indonesia played Vietnam and there were many yellow cards from Vietnam who tried to provoke the Indonesian players by doing lots of tackles or elbows.
A bit surprising with Asian football but this is what happens.
This is why I love football, if you are watching Manchester City versus Real Madrid then yeah you are going to get the best teams and that's fun too, I do enjoy it a lot and I would love to watch it this year as well, all those great big clubs or even nations like France and brazil and England and Argentina etc they are all great.
However, when it comes to teams like Indonesia or any other team like that, it is really fun to see because it shows you why we played it as a kid. Those teams are there to play, not there to just win, if they can win that would be lovely but they are there to give 100% of their power and that makes it so much more fun, it is better than watching 10+ million dollar salary players without a doubt.