The Indonesian women's national team will continue their campaign in the 2026 Women's Asian Cup Group D qualifiers, by facing Pakistan at the Indomilk Arena, Tangerang Regency.
After winning a narrow 1-0 victory over Kyrgyzstan in the first match last Sunday, women's national team coach Satoru Mochizuki said he was quite satisfied with the three points. However, the Japanese coach said he would be happier if Garuda Pertiwi achieved a big win, like Taiwan did when they crushed Pakistan 8-0.
Not without reason, with only group winners qualifying for the final round, the number of goals is very decisive for a team's progress. A total of 34 countries were divided into eight groups in the qualifying round, only the group winners qualified for Australia in March next year.
These eight countries will follow four countries that have already qualified, namely Australia as the host, as well as China, South Korea, and Japan who qualified because they were the top three teams in the 2022 Women's Asian Cup.
Therefore, the match against Pakistan is an opportunity for Indonesia to chase many goals to compete with Taiwan's goal tally in the top position. If a big win scheme occurs, and in another match Taiwan defeats Kyrgyzstan, then the determination of which country will qualify will be determined on Saturday (5/7), when Indonesia and Taiwan meet.
Given the importance of this match, Mochizuki will probably not rotate players, even though in terms of team quality, based on the FIFA world rankings, Garuda Pertiwi is in 95th position, 62 places above Pakistan.
