'Korea 5-0 Big Wave' Indonesia beats Japan 5-3 to advance to the Futsal Asian Cup 'for the first time ever'

*This content was translated by AI.

• Final showdown with Asia's strongest Iran on the 7th

Indonesia's futsal national team has advanced to the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) futsal Asian Cup final.

Indonesia defeated Japan 5-3 in the semifinals of the tournament at the Indonesia Arena in Jakarta, Indonesia, on the 5th (Korea time).

With the victory, Indonesia will face Iran on the 7th, which beat Iraq 4-2 earlier to reach the final.

This is the first time Indonesia has reached the final of the Futsal Asian Cup. The previous best record was in the quarterfinals of the 2022 tournament.

On the other hand, Iran, the final opponent, has won seven consecutive championships, including the AFC Futsal Championship, making it the most winning team in the tournament (13 times) and the strongest team in Asia in name and reality.

In the FIFA futsal ranking, Indonesia ranks 24th and Iran ranks 5th, the highest in Asia.

Indonesia, which is also the host country of the tournament, previously defeated South Korea 5-0 in the first Group A match. After beating Kyrgyzstan 5–3, they tied Iraq 1-1 to reach the quarterfinals tournament as the top of the group. Afterwards, he beat Vietnam and Japan one after another to reach the semifinals for the first time in history, and wrote a new history of advancing to the finals.

On the other hand, Japan defeated Australia 6-2 in Group C and beat Tajikistan and Uzbekistan 3-0 and 2-1 respectively to advance to the quarterfinals, then defeated Afghanistan 6-0 in the semifinals and failed to advance to the final.

If Indonesia beats Iran in the final of the tournament and wins, it will be the third team to win the championship in the history of the Futsal Asian Cup. In the Futsal Asian Cup, Iran won 13 times and Japan won four times, but no other winning team came out.

Meanwhile, South Korea, led by head coach Paulo Fernandez (Portugal), lost 2-3 to Iraq and Kyrgyzstan respectively after losing 0-5 to Indonesia in Group A and was eliminated with all three losses. The last time South Korea won the finals of the Futsal Asian Cup was in 2007 in Japan, and since the 2008 tournament, it has only drawn three and lost 21. Korea's FIFA futsal ranking is 57th and 15th in Asia.

Eom Si-joon (Gyeonggi LBFS), a member of the futsal national team who participated in this competition, said after the competition, "Only six players, including me, are currently playing with annual salaries. Of the remaining eight players, four play with only a victory allowance. The other four players are even playing the Futsal Pro League for money. Unfortunately, this is the reality of our Korean futsal," he said, pointing out the reality of Korean futsal.

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*This content was translated by AI.