Indonesia beats Malaysia 2-1 but loses AFF Cup final

[News_Editor]

Indonesia beats Malaysia 2-1 but loses AFF Cup final

2010-12-30 09:44:07 GMT+7 (ICT)

JAKARTA, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- Despite losing 2-1 in the second leg in Jakarta on Wednesday, Malaysia secured the 2010 Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup with an aggregate victory of 4-2 over Indonesia.

The Indonesian national football squad, or Merah Putih (Red White) as it is known in the country, was looking to get a boost from its home crowd in a tightly packed Bung Karno Stadium, which reportedly hosted over 100,000 fans despite its official 85,000 capacity.

With the odds against Indonesia after its Sunday 3-0 loss in Kuala Lumpur in the first leg, Malaysian striker Mohd Safee opened the night's scoring on the 54th minute, which practically sealed the team's victory as Indonesia would have to score five goals in around 35 minutes to overcome their aggregate deficit.

However, Indonesia had several scoring opportunities throughout the match, including a penalty kick after a handball, but it was missed by Firman Utina at the 17th minute. Finally, Mohammad Nasuha and Muhammad Ridwan scored in the 71st and 87th to give Indonesia a 2-1 win.

"We missed a lot of chances. We should've scored five or six goals in the match," Indonesia's head coach Alfred Riedl said. "But I think we lost the Cup in Kuala Lumpur because of that horrible 15 minutes when we conceded three goals."

Since the cup's inception in 1996, Indonesia has now lost on four occasions during the AFF Cup finals. In 2000 and 2002 against Thailand, and against Singapore in 2004.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-12-30