SEA Games Football Semifinal Tradition Broken, Indra Sjafri Speaks Out
Source: Antara Photo/Fauzan
Indonesia U-22 coach Indra Sjafri took full responsibility for Garuda Muda's failure at the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand. After delivering gold two years prior, Indra's achievements with the SEA Games team declined. From winning gold, his team now stumbled in the group stage.
"First of all, we didn't qualify from the group. Technically, the person most responsible is me," said Indra, via audio provided by PSSI in Jakarta on Friday.
At the 2025 SEA Games, Indonesia failed to advance to the semifinals either as group winners or as the best runner-up. This marked the first time Indonesia failed to progress past the group stage since the 2009 edition.
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In their final Group C match, Indonesia defeated Myanmar 3-1 at the 700th Anniversary Stadium in Chiang Mai. Indonesia's three goals were scored by Tony Firmansyah and a brace from Jens Raven, who came on as a substitute in the second half.
However, this result was insufficient to send Indonesia through to the semifinals via the best runner-up route among the three groups.
In the points calculation, the 3-1 win placed Indonesia second with three points and a +1 goal difference. In the best runner-up competition, Indonesia collected three points with a +1 goal difference, identical to Malaysia from Group B.
However, Malaysia earned the right to advance to the semifinals because they scored more goals, netting four compared to Indonesia's three.
"So, I apologize to all Indonesian people. And technically, I repeat, this is my responsibility," Indra stated.
This result ended a positive streak of reaching the semifinals in the men's football event at seven consecutive SEA Games editions since 2011.
Indonesia had to accept the reality of repeating the dark record from men's football's last failure to reach the semifinals in the 2009 edition in Vientiane, Laos.
In the 2025 SEA Games semifinals, Malaysia, who qualified as the best runner-up, will face host nation Thailand, the Group A winners. In the other bracket, Group B winners Vietnam take on Group C winners Philippines. (Antara)
