Friday, December 17, 2010
The Philippines v Indonesia 0-1 (Christian Gonzalez)
Indonesia sure made hard work of this ASEAN Football Federation semi final 1st leg tie at the Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. Officially it was a home game for the Philippines but when you have over 70,000 fans braying down your neck finding any sympathy is always going to be difficult.
For all the Philippines discipline and work ethic three goals in four goals tells its own story and while they may have stunned the Vietnamese fans in Ha Noi last week, the result and performance that catapulted them on to the ASEAN stage, last night’s toil produced little that truly threatened Markus Horison in the Indonesian goal.
They had their moments for sure and they may well have been enough against an earlier Indonesian vintage but not these guys, not under Alfred Riedl. I
’m not going to pretend I watched the Philippines with any great care and attention. I am still blown away by Indonesia’s all round play, especially defensively. Yes there was the odd moment when the old failing of lack of communication came to the fore, one time when Horison and Nasuha went for the same ball, but in this game, and indeed against the Thais, they defended solidly and as a unit. And that’s something you rarely say about Indonesian football.
Back in 2006 Maman Abdurahman was Player of the Year while he was with PSIS. In the past, at national level, he could have been accused of ball watching but now he is looking cool and impressive both on the ball and in the air. Next to him Hamkah Hamza seems to have refound his appetite with yet another commanding performance alongside Maman.
Christian Gonzalez’ fifth goal in six internationals has given Indonesia the slimmest of margins and given the way the Philippines set out this game is far from over.
But as it stands just 90 minutes now separate us from the dream final; Malaysia v Indonesia!
im blowen away by the turn around in their performances over the last 6 12 months.
12 months ago they could well have lost against the philippines and to be fair they still could.
That group had little in the way of fight or motivation, especially as it had a PSSI puppet for a manager who picked the same players and made the same complaints come hell or high water. They did well to put together 45 minutes of coherent football, and any results they got were down to either far inferior opposition or scoring early and holding on for dear life. That group wouldn't have come from behind to beat Malaysia and Thailand, even at home.
Barring something strange, we should have a tasty final between Indonesia and Malaysia. Given that Indonesia won its group and Malaysia was second, I would imagine the first leg would take place in KL and the second in Jakarta -- that's assuming logic holds sway, of course. If that does happen, playing the first leg in as hostile an environment as Indonesia is likely to see in Asean will tell us a great deal about just how far the team has come under Herr Riedl.
I think this commentary is as much about how abject Indonesia was in the not-too-distant past as its current incarnation. No one here is tipping Indonesia as a 2014 World Cup qualifier. When you start with a side that has maybe 30 minutes of fitness in it, though, even just 90 minutes of consistent effort can seem impressive.
Paul, you need to follow the Indonesian NT team journey from pre-asian cup 2007 to AFF suzuki cup 2010 to understand what jakcasual and trooperbari means.
We are not talking about Indonesia being top class in SEA, we are talking about the level of fitness and discipline that were lacking before Riedl coming and now we all saw the progress. Although its not as good as the Thai, because still for me, Thailand is the best team in this tournament, even many Indonesian will agree that Thailand is still the best team.
cheers
it's like comparing arsenal circa 1985 with arsenal circa 2004
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