
No Fear For Indonesia Coach Kluivert Ahead Of Saudi World Cup Clash
Patrick Kluivert has urged his Indonesia players not to be intimidated by the hostile atmosphere at a sold-out King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah when they face hosts Saudi Arabia in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday.
Indonesia are attempting to reach the World Cup for the first time since gaining independence from the Netherlands in 1949 and games against the Saudis and Iraq over the coming four days will determine their fate.
Recommended For YouKluivert's side open the fourth phase of Asia's World Cup preliminaries against Herve Renard's Saudi outfit knowing a first-place finish in the three-team group will secure an automatic berth at the finals in North America next year.
"I'm not afraid because if you're afraid you show your weakness," said the former Barcelona and Netherlands striker. "If we show weaknesses that gives the opponent strength.
"We know the power and the strength of Saudi Arabia, especially when they play at home, but we need to be focused. The mindset is the most important thing, to be calm in warm situations."
Indonesia have already played Saudi Arabia twice in the previous round of Asia's preliminaries -- a 1-1 draw in Jeddah last September before winning 2-0 in Jakarta two months later.
Both of those results were achieved under former coach Shin Tae-yong, who was replaced by Kluivert in January.
The Dutchman has had a run of mixed results since taking over, losing heavily to World Cup qualifiers Japan and Australia while also securing wins over China and Bahrain to keep the country's qualifying dream alive.
The Indonesians will go into the game without first-choice goalkeeper Emil Audero and striker Marselino Ferdinan, who scored the goals in November's win over the Saudis, while fellow forward Ole Romeny is also a doubt.
"We have to play two finals, so tomorrow is a final," said Kluivert. "Big expectations, of course. The importance is very high. We are representing a country of 280 million people and we are ambassadors for the game.
"The most important thing is to be sharp in the match. We live towards this moment, not only us but everybody backing us up is living for this moment."
Saudi coach Renard is confident his team can put aside the disappointment of their previous results against the Indonesians to pick up a win that will move the country a step closer to a seventh World Cup appearance.
"I think we have made very good improvements since January and we continue on our way," he said.
"We are more confident today, I think we are stronger than before but let's play, because the reality is on the field."

Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the
information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept
any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images,
videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information
contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright
issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.
Most popular stories
Market Research

- Pepeto Presale Exceeds $6.93 Million Staking And Exchange Demo Released
- Citadel Launches Suiball, The First Sui-Native Hardware Wallet
- Luminadata Unveils GAAP & SOX-Trained AI Agents Achieving 99.8% Reconciliation Accuracy
- Tradesta Becomes The First Perpetuals Exchange To Launch Equities On Avalanche
- Thinkmarkets Adds Synthetic Indices To Its Product Offering
- Edgen Launches Multi‐Agent Intelligence Upgrade To Unify Crypto And Equity Analysis
Comments
No comment