SEAToday.com, Jakarta - Indonesian national team player Nathan Tjoe-A-On has revealed his excitement ahead of the Garuda squad's third round of the 2026 World Cup Asian zone qualifiers.

Indonesia, the sole Southeast Asian representatives, is in Group C alongside Japan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Bahrain and China.

"This is a group full of a lot of quality, but I think we also have a lot of quality. We shouldn't be afraid of these teams, because yes, this is football, anything can happen," Nathan said, quoted by FIFA.com.

The Swansea City player continued, "We just need to analyse well how they play and where our opportunities are, then we need to be able to exploit their weaknesses and show our quality."

Nathan ensures that he will do his utmost to make Indonesia qualify for the 2026 World Cup. "I think for every player, if I speak for all the players in our team, it (qualifying for the World Cup) is a dream," he explained.

The 22 December 2001-born player added, "When you're young and little, you always dream of playing on the big stage. If you're able to try to get a stage or end-of-tournament (qualifying) opportunity then you have to do everything you can to achieve that goal. Of course this means a lot to us, a dream that could come true for us as players and also the country, of course."

"With this new format, of course there are more opportunities for Asian representatives to qualify for the World Cup, and I think, yes, this is very good for the World Cup because now you can see more other countries that might normally be difficult to qualify because there are not too many places, but now there is a greater opportunity, so I think this is good," he said.