The goalkeeper’s stand is understandable as Indonesia centre-back Jordi Amat is adamant that his team will bounce back after losing 3-1 to Iraq in their opening match.
Czech Republic-born Filip, who predominantly played in Europe before moving to the V League last year to join Cong An Ha Noi FC, is well aware of the history between Vietnam and Indonesia with the two sides also in the same Preliminary Joint Qualification – Round 2 for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027™ group.

“It was my first international match (against Japan),” said Filip. “Our team played a really good game and we surprised everybody.

“First half, we had some opportunities but in the end we lost. I’m really proud of our team because we showed that we can play against the best in Asia.”

“We will respect Indonesia like they are of the same quality as Japan. We are aiming for three points because we want to go to the next round.

“I’m aware of the history between the two teams but we won’t let the history affect us and we want to focus on the task at hand, to get the three points and try to play our game.”

Indonesia produced a spirited performance against Iraq, pulling themselves back after going 1-0 behind but ultimately ran out of steam.

Experienced Johor Darul Ta’zim defender Amat wants his side to put the loss aside and concentrate on improving their collective game in a bid to match what Indonesia achieved in previous appearances at the AFC Asian Cup.

Indonesia grabbed a group stage win in the 2004 and 2007 editions, beating Qatar and Bahrain respectively, both with 2-1 scorelines.

“It’s going to be a tough game,” said Amat. “It’s a very important game for Indonesia. We want to win so we need a good performance and I believe we can do it.

“Yes, we lost our first game against Iraq but I was happy with the performance even though we are sad about the result. We are a very young team who competed against a big team like Iraq. This team is improving every day.

“We’re following the ideas of the coach and you can see that every game. We saw Vietnam’s game and they had a very good first half against Japan. They are a strong team so we will need to bring our best to beat them.”