After Indonesia drew 1-1 with Singapore in the last match of Group A of the ASEAN Cup 2026 and officially stopped, the country's media simultaneously published articles regretting the results of the home team.
Indonesian media believes that the archipelago team could not complete the mandatory goal of defeating Singapore to qualify for the next round. The draw left coach John Herdman's team with only 7 points, ranked third in Group A and eliminated.
According to assessments by Indonesian newspapers, Garuda had a positive start and took the lead at the beginning of the second half thanks to Ragnar Oratmangoen's goal. However, a mistake in defense caused this team to drop victory when Ilhan Fandi scored the equalizer for Singapore.
Indonesian newspapers also commented that the turning point of the match came from the situation where the referee canceled the red card for Song Ui-young after consulting VAR. Just a few minutes later, Singapore took advantage of the lack of understanding between the Indonesian defense and goalkeeper to score the equalizing goal.
Indonesian media believes that despite continuously putting pressure in the remaining time, the national team still could not find a decisive goal and had to pay the price by being eliminated right from the group stage.
Besides the regret for the home team, the Indonesian press also mentioned the performance of the Vietnamese team. The 3-1 victory over Cambodia helped coach Kim Sang-sik's team finish the group stage with 10 points, thereby winning the top spot in Group A.
According to Indonesian media, the Vietnamese team has shown stability throughout the group stage to deserve to be at the top of the group. Meanwhile, Singapore with 8 points won second place, while Indonesia sadly ended their ASEAN Cup 2026 journey in third place.
With this result, Vietnam and Singapore became the two representatives of Group A to participate in the semi-finals of ASEAN Cup 2026, while Indonesia soon said goodbye to the tournament despite being expected to go deep and compete for the championship.
