Tigers...

...Mauled!

It was not the scoreline every Malaysian would have imagine prior to the AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 clash between bitter rivals Indonesia and Malaysia. Many would feel it is a hard task to defeat the Indonesians especially in front of their partisan home crowd thus a draw or a low scoring defeat would be acceptable.

Unfortunately the worst thing could happen, happened. At the end of the ninety minutes played the scoreline read; INDONESIA 5 MALAYSIA 1.

It was certainly a victory every Indonesian dreamed about and for every Malaysian, their worst nightmare.

However, both coaches agreed the scoreline did not reflect the quality of the match with Malaysia certainly made life tough for the home side. Perhaps the actual difference between the teams was there were too many mistakes committed by the Malaysians.

Malaysia took the lead in the 19th minute when a long ball out of defence found its way to Mohamad Safee Sali who took on two defenders before laying it to Shahrul Idlan Talaha. The striker lifted the ball before unleashing a volley which was powerful enough to beat the Indonesian goalkeeper. A well taken goal.

The equaliser for the home side was stated as an own goal by defender Mohamad Asrarudin but the cross from the right should not have been allowed in the first place. Then another Malaysian player committed the cardinal sin in football when he was caught in possession around the penalty area.

When the ball found its way to Uruguayan born Christian Gonzales, it was a matter of picking out his spot to beat Sharbinee Allawee in the Malaysian goal. The Terengganu goalkeeper performed heroically throughout the match, preventing a number of chances from being turned into goals by the Indonesian forward.

However, he was helpless when his defender went asleep again when Indonesia substitute Muhamad Ridwan tried to play a one-two at the edge of the Malaysian penalty box. Defender Mohamad Fadli Shas tried to block the ball but the it fell into the path of Ridwan who continued his run with no Malaysian player alert enough to stick with him which made his task in beating Sharbinee a lot easier.

If the equaliser could be deemed as an unfortunate incident for Asrarudin, conceding the fourth goal was of his own making. A high ball which should have been bread and butter for the defender was mis-controlled by Asrarudin. The loose ball was pounced by Arif Suyono who had the strength to shrug off the challenges by the Malaysian defence before slotting the ball past Sharbinee, who was clearly disappointed with his defence.

Then deep into stoppage time when many Malaysians were thinking nothing worse could happen, the Indonesian broke through again. Again it was on the right and the cross by Oktovianus Maniani was turned in by Irfan Bachdim to give the scoreline a huge gloss for his side while a gloom outlook for the Malaysians who now will take on perennial favourite Thailand in their next match which could determine who will be in the last four of the competition.

It was certainly not a night to remember for Malaysians but it is certainly not the end of the fight either.

C'MON TIGERS!



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