Soccer / football: the first Asian country to qualify for the World Cup

It’s not North Korea in 1966. It’s not Korea Republic in 1954. The answer might surprise you. Before the Second World War started, for the 1938 World Cup, Indonesia qualified, under the name Dutch East Indies. Of course you could argue that since they have not achieved independence, most of the players could’ve been of Dutch descent.

But surprisingly, that is not the case, at least judging from the name of the players in the starting eleven. There are at least 5 Asian-sounding names in the first XI: Tan Mo Heng (Goalkeeper), Achmad Nawir, Tan Hong Djien, Suvarte Soedermadji, Anwar Sutan. Added to that, there are at least 2 Asian-sounding names in the reserves list: Bing Mo Heng and Tan Se Han. The coach was Johannes Van Mastenbroek.

Unfortunately, they only played in one match (no round robin matches then), and that against the mightly Magyars. The match took place at 5pm, 5th June 1938 at Reims, France in front of about 9,000 spectators.

Indonesia lost that match 0-6, and Hungary went on to reach the finals where they lost to Italy.

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