Success of the U-23 National Team, 3-4-3 Formation, and Hope for the 2024 Olympics

History continues. Having set foot in the semifinals, the U-23 Indonesian National Team has the opportunity to qualify for the 2024 Olympics.

AFC

The supporters of Indonesia showed their support in the match against South Korea in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Asia U-23 Cup at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar on Friday (26/4/2024) early morning local time. Indonesia defeated South Korea through a penalty shoot-out, leading them to advance to the semifinals.

A sweet victory in a bet occurred. Indonesia U-23 national team won the duel against the Korean U-23 national team in the quarter-final match AFC U-23 Asian Cup 2024.

Indonesia's winning stake was presented in a 120-minute match that ended with a score of 2-2. The duel was concluded through a penalty shootout that ended 11-10. "Garuda Muda" won and advanced to the semifinals.

Talking about victory in life, Sutan Sjahrir often quotes a passage from the German poet, Friedrich Shciller, which reads: und setzt ihr nicht das Leben ein, nie wird euch das Leben gewonnen sein. The meaning of this passage is a life that If you don't bet, you will never win.

In this year's U-23 Asia Cup competition, the stakes for the national U-23 team have been high in four matches. The first one ended with a 0-2 defeat against Qatar.

Without fear, Indonesia won the next three matches. Indonesia consecutively defeated Australia 1-0, crushed Jordan 4-1, and finally sent South Korea home through a penalty shootout.

The success of Rizki Ridho and his friends to advance to the semifinals has surpassed the initial target. Some previous reports stated that the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) targeted the U-23 national team to make it to the top eight or pass the group phase. (bolasport.com, 3/4/2024).

In response to the target, Shin Tae-yong offered more. The South Korean coach promised to take Indonesia to the semifinals. This promise was fulfilled on Friday (26/4/2024) early morning.

Also read: Expressing Appreciation, President Calls U-23 Team's Achievement Historic

3-4-3 formation

With hard work and discipline, the "Garuda Muda" has proven itself capable of surpassing its inferiority as a mediocre team among other Asian countries. Off the field, Shin often emphasizes the discipline practiced during training as an effort to cultivate a strong team mentality.

On the field, real betting is implemented with the 3-4-3 formation which the young Indonesian players are able to elaborate well. This formation consists of three pure defenders, four midfielders and three front attackers.

This step is a gamble made by Shin in response to the defeat against Qatar in the opening match. In that first game, Indonesia appeared with a 5-4-1 formation that placed five defenders, four midfielders, and one striker.

This scheme began to change with the formation of 3-4-3 by Shin in the match against Australia. In the second match, Ferarri, Ridho, and Komang appeared as pure defenders.

Meanwhile, the central midfielder positions are filled by Fajar, Marselino, Nathan, and Arhan. Upfront, there are Witan, Sroyer, and Struick. In this scheme, the defense, midfield, and frontline can be flexibly controlled.

Two right and left midfielders can play a role in closing down the opponent's attacks from the flanks in a defensive scheme. Conversely, these two players can also help the attack from the wing.

AFC

Indonesia's coach Shin Tae-yong led his team in the quarterfinal match of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup against South Korea, which took place at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar on Friday morning (April 26, 2024).

Meanwhile, the midfielder in the U-23 national team led by Nathan Tjoe A-On is tasked with cutting off the opponent's ball flow in the middle or alternatively directing the ball forward to build a swift attack.

In defense, the 3-4-3 formation can change to 5-4-1. Meanwhile, in attack, this formation can also be fluid and adapt to the opponent's scheme, becoming 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1.

After successfully conquering Australia, this formation was implemented by Shin, both when facing Jordan and South Korea. The result was that the tempo of the game could be played quite well by Indonesian players, although the audience had to hold their breath several times watching minor mistakes.

In addition to changing formations, Shin's experiment was to rotate a pure defender who was accompanying U-23 national team captain Rizki Ridho and trying to change the arrangement of Indonesia's attacking trident.

In the match against South Korea, Hubner and Komang accompanied Ridho. Meanwhile, in the front line, Marselino and Witan were on the right and left flanks, flanking Struick.

On paper, the 3-4-3 formation, which was successfully played cohesively, allowed Indonesia to dominate the ball possession and passing compared to their opponents. In the game against South Korea, Indonesia had 53 percent ball possession and made 539 passes with 81 percent accuracy.

Meanwhile, South Korea had 47 percent ball possession and made 468 accurate passes with a 79 percent accuracy rate. However, it should be noted that the South Korea U-23 team had to play with only 10 players since the 70th minute after Lee Young-jun received a red card for fouling Justin Hubner.

The 3-4-3 formation has actually been popular in Italy since the 1980s to develop a game transition that can be done simply and quickly.

This formation is considered more effective in attacking. In modern football, several famous coaches, such as Antonio Conte, Thomas Tuchel, and Joachim Low, prefer this formation.

Returning to the U-23 national team, one of the high demands in this formation is the presence of a hardworking, fast, and highly-stamina center-back and winger. On the left side, Arhan Pratama appears to be able to fulfill these requirements. However, in the match against South Korea, the right side of Indonesia still needs special attention.

The position initially filled by Rio Fahmi seems to be under intensive attack from South Korea. The decision to replace Rio Fahmi with M Fajar has not yielded significant results. In fact, Jeam Kelly Sroyer had to replace M Fajar again in an attempt to maximize Indonesia's right side.

Although effective, in terms of formation, the 3-4-3 formation has a natural weakness in the midfield. The lack of a pure attacking midfielder position makes it very minimal to build the attack starting from the midfield, unless a team has two very creative central midfielders.

On the contrary, if this formation faces an opposing team with creative midfielders and attackers, midfield dominance may potentially be greatly reduced.

Not to mention, counter attacks utilizing the rising wing back can threaten one's own defense. This occurred in South Korea's second goal, scored by Joeng Sang-bin using a counter attack in the 84th minute. This is something that the U-23 national team should be wary of in upcoming matches.

Also read: Traces of the Indonesian National Football Team's Achievements at Asian Level

Paris 2024 Olympic hopes

After successfully surpassing the target to advance to the semifinals, the U-23 national team sets its sights on a bigger mission, which is to directly qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The two teams that make it to the finals, as well as the third-ranked team in the competition, will secure the tickets.

Meanwhile, the team that loses in the battle for third place must go through the playoffs. By setting foot in the semifinals, at least the U-23 national team has hopes of going to the Paris Olympics by having to play the playoffs.

However, on platform X, the high spirits of "Garuda Muda" are circulating, with the highest hope of reaching the final and even aiming for the championship.

AFC

Indonesian player Pratama Arhan (left) competes for the ball with South Korean player Kang Seongjin in the quarterfinals of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha, Qatar, early Friday morning (26/4/2024) WIB.

When the Chairman of PSSI, Erick Thohir, called for one more victory for the Olympics, the players shouted "two", which means winning this competition.

This hope should be appreciated by the national public. However, this great hope must be accompanied by consistency, high work ethic, and full concentration that must be demonstrated first in the semifinal match.

In the four big matches, the Indonesian youth team will play against the winner of the Uzbekistan vs Saudi Arabia game. The semifinal match will be held on Monday (April 29th, 2024) night at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha.

Approaching this match with optimism, repeating what Sjahrir said, a life that is not at stake will never be won. (R&D COMPAS)

Also read: Indonesia vs South Korea Penalty Shootout Drama, Why Was Justin Hubner's Penalty Repeated?