President Jokowi Optimistic U-23 National Team Qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics
The match between the Indonesian U-23 National Team and Uzbekistan National Team, Monday (04/29), in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by: PSSI.org)
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressed his optimism for the Indonesian U-23 national football team to enter the 2024 Paris Olympics, in his response to the defeat of the Indonesian U-23 national team to Uzbekistan in the semifinals of the U-23 Asian Cup.
“I have the feeling that our team will enter the Olympics, God willing,” said the President in his statement to media crew after handing over electronic land certificates to the community at Tawang Alun Sports Stadium, Banyuwangi regency, East Java province, Tuesday (04/30).
The President also said that in a match, there must be wins and losses. Although the U-23 national team have not yet won, President Jokowi appreciated their enthusiasm and struggle.
“Yes, in a match, there must be wins and losses and last night I saw that the U-23 national team had striven hard with great enthusiasm, even though they had not won yet,” said the President.
For the record, even though they lost to Uzbekistan, the Indonesian U-23 (Garuda Muda) team still has the opportunity to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics via two routes.
The first path is to win the third place in the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup. The Indonesian U-23 national team must beat the Iraq U-23 national team on Thursday (05/02).
If they lose against Iraq, the Indonesian national team who are currently trained by coach Shin Tae-yong must undergo an intercontinental play-off match against the representative from Africa, the Guinea U-23 national team, and win the match so that their hopes of appearing at the 2024 Paris Olympics can be realized.
“We hope that our team can win against the Iraq national team. If they lose, there will still be another chance to win in the match against the Guinea national team from Africa,” concluded the President. (Bureau of Press, Media and Information (BPMI) of Presidential Secretariat/UN)
