Indonesian Media Claims Their National Team as the Best in Southeast Asia, Highlights What Vietnam Has Yet to Achieve

Indonesian media has attracted attention by asserting that their national team is the best representative of Southeast Asia in 2025, based on milestones that neither Vietnam nor Thailand have reached.

In a year-end analysis for 2025, Indonesia’s Bola newspaper bluntly referred to their national team as “the best Southeast Asian team”, citing a series of historic achievements in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Although they did not secure a spot in the world’s biggest football tournament, Indonesian media believe the Garuda team’s journey surpasses that of regional rivals, including Vietnam.

Bola emphasized that the main reason for Indonesia’s confidence in this claim is that they became the first Southeast Asian team in history to reach the fourth round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

In the article, the newspaper stated: “Indonesia is the only ASEAN team to advance to the fourth round of World Cup qualifying, a feat never before achieved by any team in the region”. This detail was directly compared by Indonesian media with Vietnam and Thailand, both of which only reached the third round.

According to Bola, reaching the fourth round is not only a matter of achievement but also reflects Indonesia’s significant progress in competitiveness against Asia’s top teams. Despite losses to Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the decisive stage, Indonesia is viewed as having entered the group of teams capable of posing a real challenge, rather than just being “easy opponents.”

Another point frequently mentioned by Indonesian press is the FIFA ranking. Bola wrote that “the 118th position in the July 2025 FIFA rankings is Indonesia’s highest since 2006”.

For them, this is proof of Indonesia’s stability and steady point accumulation throughout the year, especially in official World Cup qualifying matches. Although Indonesia has since dropped to 122nd place, the media still believe that reaching the top 100 in 2026 is entirely achievable.

Bola also devoted several lines to describing how Indonesia faced the “giants” of Asia. The newspaper emphasized “Garuda did not avoid strong opponents and even secured important victories against China and Bahrain”, two 1-0 home wins seen as proof of their ability to compete fairly, something they argue other Southeast Asian teams have not maintained at this level.

Notably, when directly comparing with Vietnam, Bola pointed out that although Vietnamese football has had many successes regionally and continentally in the past, by 2025 the national team still has not surpassed the third round of World Cup qualifiers. For Indonesian media, this is the dividing line that sets them apart and gives them confidence to claim the number one spot in Southeast Asia in 2025, at least on the World Cup journey.

This perspective will certainly spark debate, but it shows Indonesia is entering a rare phase of confidence, where they not only compare themselves regionally but also place themselves in the broader context of Asian football.