NAYPYITAW (14 Dec 2013) – Indonesia booked their place in the semi-finals of the men’s Futsal event here at the SEA Games when they struck the early goals to beat Malaysia 5-4 yesterday.
With just three teams in Group A, the win has put Indonesia ahead of Malaysia and also hosts Myanmar, who had five days ago battled to a 4-4 draw in the opener.
“The key was the early goals,” said Indonesia coach Andri Irawan (pix).
“The goals gave the players a higher sense of belief. We were more aggressive in the first half. While in the second, we relied more on counter-attacks.”
By the first seventh minutes, Indonesia were already two goals up through Ardy Suwardy (3rd) and Bambang Saptaji (7th) before Malaysia replied off Saiful Aula (11th) as Indonesia came back to lead 3-1 after Syahidansyah Lubis popped in the third goal in the a minute later.
Indonesia went off into the break 4-3 in front when Andri Kustiawan (17th) found the back of the net in between Malaysia’s effort off Asmie Amir (16th) and Fitri Yatim (19th).
The second half was closer with Malaysians pressing hard while Indonesia attempted to catch their opponents on the break. As Indonesia then added the fifth goal of the game through Anza Rizal (29th), a late reply from Abu Haniffa (37th) failed to ignite the Malaysian game.
With the loss, Malaysia will now have to wait the results of the Myanmar-Indonesia tie tomorrow to see if they luck can give them the passage to the next round.
