The lack of playing international matches by the Brunei national football team compared to other teams in the region was pointed out as the main factor for the national squad’s disappointing run in international games this year.
National football coach Mario Rivera Campesino revealed this during a press conference yesterday ahead of the second leg of 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifier match against Indonesia, set to kick off at the newly renovated Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium at 8pm tonight.
The Indonesian national football team has an advantage in the first leg after defeating Brunei 6-0 at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Main Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia on October 12.
On Brunei’s long spell of winless run in international matches and how to improve to move forward, the national coach said, “If we don’t play enough international matches, we cannot improve. For example, I have never painted and if I don’t start painting, I won’t improve. And if I paint every day, I will improve and become better. Southeast Asian teams are playing over 10 international games every year and Brunei is averaging less than two games a year.”
Fortunately, he said, “In 2022, we won the qualifier (ASEAN Football Federation Championship defeating Timor-Leste 6–3 on aggregate) because we played two international games prior. In 2022, we played eight international games.
“However, there were no matches in the beginning of the year. We lost our first match against Hong Kong (0-10). This was a disaster for us where we tried everything in one match. We only have one international game to try new strategies, which is a huge risk for us.
“If our team doesn’t play more international matches, we cannot improve,” he iterated.
He also acknowledged that it is difficult to come back from a 6-0 deficit, however the team will do its best to come up with a win in front of the home crowd.
“Realistically, we are at a big disadvantage and we cannot overcome the deficit of 6-0, but we will try to win the game tonight. It is a different situation from the first leg. We are now playing at home and we will try to win the match, but to win over six goals is realistically not possible,” Campesino said.
“There is a huge gap between Brunei and Indonesia football. In Indonesia, there are 320 million people and hundreds of thousands play football including kids.
“They have professional teams in their first league and second division league comprising 46 professional teams and each team has 20 professional footballers.” – James Kon
