Indonesia coach John Herdman heralded Mitch Baker’s introduction to international football “a dream debut” after the 19-year-old scored a hat-trick in his side’s opening 5-1 win over Cambodia in Group A of the ASEAN Hyundai Cup™ 2026 on Monday.
Baker became the first Indonesian player since Bambang Pamungkas in 2002 to score three times in a single match in the competition when he led his side to a comprehensive win over Koji Gyotoku’s team as the Merah Putih made a strong start to their challenge for the title.
“Mitchell has enjoyed a dream debut. It was a wonderful team performance and a very special occasion for a young player to score three goals on his international debut,” said Herdman.
“He certainly met expectations tonight. Scoring a hat-trick on your debut as a 19-year-old in front of more than 20,000 people is a significant challenge. Congratulations to him, but as Mitchell said, he could not have achieved it without the team.
“The intensity and effort from players such as Eliano Reijnders and Donny Tri Pamungkas contributed to the performance. I could mention the entire team.
“The players worked extremely hard to press, regain possession high up the pitch and deliver crosses into Mitchell. Thom Haye’s delivery was at an exceptional level tonight.
“All of that created the opportunities, although Mitchell still had to finish them, and he did. His performance certainly met expectations.”
Sandy Walsh and substitute Jens Raven were also on target for Indonesia with the only blight on the performance a goal in the 48th minute by Chea Sokmeng that briefly gave the Cambodians hope of an unlikely comeback.
“I think the technical level in Southeast Asia is very high,” said Herdman, who led Canada to the FIFA World Cup finals in 2022.
“Cambodia showed that they have genuine technical quality among their attacking players and are capable of causing problems. However, our aggression allowed us to impose a very intense press, which prevented them from settling in possession.
“We are disappointed because we wanted to keep a clean sheet.”
The result was Cambodia’s second defeat in a row following their late loss against Singapore in their opening match but coach Koji Gyotoku sought to take the positives from a challenging evening in Bogor.
“Unfortunately, we lost the match, “ he said. “However, it was a valuable experience for us to face an Indonesia team with many quality players.
“We have now lost two matches in a row, but we still have two games remaining. We have to move forward and try to win our next two matches.
“Indonesia have many quality players and were particularly strong in the physical duels because of their height. That is an area in which we also need to improve.”
Indonesia, who are chasing their first title in the region’s premier football event, travel to Chonburi to face Timor-Leste on Friday while Cambodia’s next match is at home against Timor-Leste.
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