The Japan Times - Kluivert says best to come as Indonesia fire life into World Cup hopes

Five days after Barcelona and Dutch great Kluivert saw his team thrashed 5-1 by Australia in his first game as coach, Oxford United's Ole Romeny scored the only goal in the 24th minute for a vital three points on Tuesday.

Japan top Asian qualifying Group C and have already punched their ticket to North America in 2026, with Australia in distant second in the other automatic qualifying place on 13 points.

With two rounds of matches to go, Saudi Arabia are third on 10 points, one point ahead of Indonesia in fourth, with Bahrain and China on six points.

Teams finishing third and fourth go into another round of qualifying -- Indonesia's most likely route to their first World Cup since gaining independence as a country in 1945.

Kluivert said the packed crowd at GBK stadium helped drag his side over the line.

"It was fantastic, we knew the atmosphere would be like this, 69,000 people cheering. I want to thank the fans for having supported us here in the stadium," said the 48-year-old Dutchman.

Kluivert felt his team, made up of mostly Netherlands-born naturalised players, were full value for only their second victory in eight matches in this qualifying phase.

"We have first of all to be very happy with this result, we deserved to win with the chances we created, we deserved even more goals," said Kluivert, whose team host bottom side China in June and then travel to already qualified Japan in their final group match.

"In Australia, it was a result that we did not deserve. This time in front of our fans we are very happy to have this result and to share with the fans.

"It's just the beginning, we have more time till June, we have a little time to fix everything even better."

H.Hayashi--JT