REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- PSSI General Chairman Erick Thohir reminded the Indonesia U-23 national team to keep focused throughout the match against Vietnam U-23 team in the final of the ASEAN U-23 Mandiri Cup 2025 Championship or AFF U-23 Cup at Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium (SUGBK), Jakarta, Tuesday (29/7/2025) at 20:00pm.
Erick expects the final against Vietnam to be tight again, just as it did in the final of the last edition of 2023 in Thailand. At that time, the team known as Golden Star Warriors defeated Garuda Muda 6-5 in a penalty shootout.
“Remember it was a tough match. So we have to focus for 90 minutes,” Erick said, quoted from his official Instagram account on Monday.
The man who also serves as SOE Minister said Kadek Arel and his comrades must be brave to play hard, but make the intention to injure the opponent.
If it becomes the champion, Indonesia will win its second title in the tournament after winning the 2019 edition in Cambodia. At that time, the U-23 national team was managed by Indra Sjafri.
“They've been to the finals three times, two of them champions,” Erick said.
“Here we are the hosts. We have to dare to play hard. But not to hurt you,” he added.
On the same occasion, Erick asked about the current condition of the injuries of Jens Raven and Arkhan Fikri, in which both said their injuries were “safe”.
Raven limped off in the final minutes of the extra time round twice 15 minutes, when eliminating Thailand in the semi-final match by a 7-6 score on penalty shoot-out.
As for Arkhan, the Arema FC player has not played in two matches due to his injury, namely against Malaysia in the last match of Group A and also against Thailand in the semifinals. He appeared on the bench against Thailand, but was not included by Gerald Vanenburg.
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