SCARE FOR MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA

Malaysian head coach P. Balakrishan said after the match that the team took the match against the newcomers a little too easy and almost paid the price for it.

“We woke up only after Laos scored the goal and after the pep talk during the break, they improved significantly,” said Balakrishnan after the game.

The Malaysian side fell to an early goal from Laos in the 13th minute when Vidalack Souvanhavongsa played the ball short to Anakone Sayakone, who back flicked the ball into the net.

But Malaysia rallied two minutes later for Jamhauri Zainuddin to score an acute angle before adding further goals from Safar Mohamad (26th minute), Addie Azwan Zainal (31st minute) and Mohd Saiful Mohd Noor (37th minute).

Laos’ second goal of the afternoon was scored by Vidalack a minute to the end.

The script was almost the same for Indonesia when they took failed to dictate the early momentum to fall behind off a strike from Aung Moe in the third minute.

Indonesia then forcibly came back into the match when they scored off Topas Pamungkas (15th minute), Afif Taminy (16th) as Myanmar pulled back with their second goal from Maung Maung Myint a minute later.

But Indonesia was stronger in the second half as they scored two more goals from Jaelani Ladjanibi (28th minute) and Topas (39th).

“There is no doubt that we deserve to win today. The performamce was good but the finishing was disappointing,” quipped Justinus Lhaksana afterwards.

AFF FUTSAL LEAGUE 2008 RESULTS and FIXTURES

27 AUGUST
MALAYSIA 4 LAOS 2
INDONESIA 4 MYANMAR 2
Vietnam vs Brunei
Thailand vs Philippines

28 AUGUST
Laos vs Vietnam
Philippines vs Indonesia
Brunei vs Malaysia
Myanmar vs Thailand

29 AUGUST
Vietnam vs Malaysia
Myanmar vs Philippines
Thailand vs Indonesia
Brunei vs Laos