Indonesia's wait for Olympic football goes on after Uzbekistan defeat

JAKARTA: Indonesia were knocked out of the under-23 Asian Cup on Monday (Apr 29) after a 2-0 semi-final defeat to Uzbekistan, forcing the country to wait for qualification to the Olympic men's football tournament for what would be the second time in its history.

The Red and Whites can still qualify for the Games in Paris if they win a third-place playoff match against Iraq later this week.

In the event they lose and finish fourth, they must beat Guinea in an Asian-African playoff match.

Their Central Asian rivals broke Indonesian hearts in the Qatari capital Doha when Khusayin Norchaev tucked home a cross between two defenders in the 68th minute, and Pratama Arhan scored an own goal in the 86th minute.

The second goal came after Indonesia went down to 10 men when Rizky Ridho was sent off for a high tackle that was deemed to be violent conduct.

If Indonesia had won, they would have played football at an Olympics for the first time in nearly seven decades, since the Soviet Union eliminated them from the 1956 Games in Melbourne.

The U23 Asian Cup is the Asian Football Confederation's qualification tournament for the Olympics, where football is played by mostly under-23 squads with three exceptions for older players allowed in each team.

Indonesia's qualification hopes dramatically rose after beating Asian powerhouse South Korea last week.

It was a South Korean coach, Shin Tae-yong, who led Indonesia to victory to prevent his home country from qualifying for the Games for the first time since the 1980s.