REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- PSSI stated that the Indonesian women's national football team is scheduled to undergo a training concentration (TC) in Japan and will face the Dutch national team in the international match official FIFA.
“The women's team will leave for Japan on September 24 and will be there until October 21, 2024. After that, they travel to the Netherlands to face the Dutch national team on FIFA match day on October 25,” said PSSI Executive Committee member Vivin Cahyani Sungkono at Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium (SUGBK), Jakarta, Saturday (21/9/2024).
Vivin, the only female member of Exco PSSI 2023-2027, said that the women's national team schedule is very tight towards the end of the year. At the moment, she continued, the women's team is undergoing TC in Jakarta, which is attended by 25 players. They will fly to Japan on Tuesday (September 24), where three Indonesian diaspora players will join, bringing the number of women's national team personnel to 28.
In Japan, the skills of the Indonesian women's national team will be honed in the Japanese way, under the direct supervision of coach Satoru Mochizuki. In 2011, Satoru co-led the 2011 FIFA World Cup champion Japan women's national team as an assistant coach.
According to Vivin, as long as in Japan, the women's national team was not given a special bus. However, they had to move to four to five cities to train and play seven trial matches against several teams including the daughter team of the club Satoru Mochizuki once played for, Urawa Reds.
“The women's team was in Japan for almost a month. After that, the team goes to the Netherlands,” he said.
Vivin said that friendly matches against the Dutch national team can be held thanks to a direct invitation from the Dutch Football Federation (KNVB). He stressed that PSSI was very honoured to receive the invitation and would strive to display their best performance and courage on the pitch. In the Netherlands, two girls from the diaspora are coming to strengthen the squad of the team nicknamed “Garuda Pertiwi”.
However, although the date of the game has been set for October 25, 2024, there are still things being talked about. “We have not agreed on the hours because we want the game to be broadcast live, as well as the friendly matches in Japan. We are trying to contact the broadcasting production in Indonesia to be able to broadcast from there,” Vivin said.
The Surabaya-born woman added that from the Netherlands, the women's national team has not returned to Indonesia but instead shifted to Jordan to play a test match against the country's U-20 team. Thus, Vivin made sure that only U-20 players from the Indonesian women's national team were involved.
“Players who are older than that did not come to Jordan. We hope that the women's national team is already in Indonesia on November 1 to continue to have a holiday until it reconvenes on November 5, 2025 to carry out TC preparations for the AFF Women's Cup in Laos on November 23 to December 5, 2024. We want to leave early for Laos to prepare for November 15,” he said.
Regarding the target in the AFF Cup, Vivin confirmed that his team is trying to win because the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand did not participate in the tournament. “With strong determination and careful preparation, we are targeting the champions,” he said.