Malaysia won its first ASEAN Suzuki Cup Wednesday by beating Indonesia with an aggregate score of 4-2 for the first and second legs of the Southeast Asian championships final.
In the final's second leg, held in Jakarta's Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Indonesia beat Malaysia 2-1 in a match attended by Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
However, the score was not enough to overcome Indonesia's 3-0 defeat to Malaysia in the first leg at the national stadium in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday.
Malaysia's Mohammad Safee Bin Mohammad Sali, the top scorer during the 2010 championships ASEAN Suzuki Cup, formerly known as the Tiger Cup, scored the first goal in the 53rd minute.
Indonesia levelled the score in the 71st minute with a goal by Mohammad Nasuha and Mohammad Ridwan took the home country into the lead with a second goal in the 87th minute.
Losing the ASEAN Suzuki Cup tournament was a bitter pill for Indonesia to swallow after beating Malaysia 5-1 in a qualification match earlier this month.
Last week's first leg was marred by incidents in which fans aimed laser beams at Indonesian players during the game.
Dan Stephen Palami, the man behind Philippine football’s renaissance, shows his devotion for the sport in unconventional ways.
As a schoolboy in Tacloban City, Palami would insist on wearing his new pair of studs as he went up the stage to receive his awards during recognition day.
As manager of a national team that had sometimes been overlooked even by its own federation, Palami takes a hands-on approach.
He is so involved that sometimes he joins training sessions. He even plays to complete the lineup during scrimmages when players are lacking.
“Football is my passion,” said the 40-year-old Palami, a former varsity player at the University of the Philippines.
“When the opportunity to manage the national team came, I saw it as a chance to really help the sport.”
Palami took the job on the condition that “the team should be isolated from the issues hounding the Philippine Football Federation.”
With little fanfare, Palami carried out his role, funding the team to the Interport Cup in Taiwan in January. He took the team to Tacloban and Davao for training camps, and also to Cebu for outreach programs and clinics.
Palami’s approach was enough to lure Phil and James Younghusband out of the sidelines and join the team. The Younghusband brothers had quit the national team because of a row with the PFF two years ago.
“They probably saw how serious we were in building the team,” said Palami.
Palami, an accounting graduate of UP, funds the team primarily through the Autre Porte Global Inc., an engineering firm in charge of construction, maintenance and operations of LRT 1 and LRT 2. Palami is CEO of APT Global.
“The family was actually concerned how he will be able to sustain the program,” said Palami’s younger brother, Ted.
“He always had this in mind that for football to attract big corporations, they have to be marketable, and for that to happen, it has to be a serious approach in managing the team.”
With the Azkals making a surprising run to the semifinals of the AFF Suzuki Cup, Palami is starting to reap the fruits of his labor. A slew of companies have pitched in to help the Azkals future campaigns.
“I just felt that it will take one man to believe in the team,” said Palami. “And now, we are creating believers out of our team.”
Palami rarely shows emotion. With every fighting performance by the Azkals, though, he is stoked.
As Phil Younghusband struck the goal that secured the famous 2-0 upset of defending champion Vietnam, Palami, celebrating on the Philippines’ bench, looked for the nearest television camera and let out a loud shout: Pilipinas.
JAKARTA, Indonesia—As far as team manager Dan Palami and coach Simon McMenemy are concerned, there is no reason for the Philippines to be disappointed after Indonesia ended its magical run in the Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup semifinals here Sunday night.
“We may have lost the battle, but we earned a lot of respect from the other teams,” said Palami, who has bankrolled the team since 2009.
“[The Filipino players] will be disappointed but if they think about their journey to get here, I am sure they will feel proud,” said McMenemy.
The Filipinos pushed the Indonesians to the limit but were left undone by a marvelous goal from Indonesia’s Uruguayan-born striker Cristian Gonzales in each of the two-leg semifinals.
Gonzales headed home the game-winner in the first leg and repeated his heroics in the second match with a sensational long-range strike to secure the victory for the Indonesians.
McMenemy said he was proud of the Philippine team, which over-achieved in this tournament.
The Filipinos beat Vietnam, 2-0, and drew with fancied squads Singapore and Burma (Myanmar) to reach the semifinals.
“I couldn’t ask anything more from them,” said McMenemy. “They created chances against the run of play, we pushed the men forward, we changed our shape a little but it didn’t work out at the end.”
“The boys are gutted as they would be after losing a semifinal, but to get to where they’ve got is an achievement,” added the Filipinos’ British coach.
He said the team would need more talent to contend again.
“When we were looking for that extra push, I felt we fell short,” he said.
“I think that football fans genuinely appreciate hard work and that’s what we do. There’s no amazing tactic to how we play; we just grind it out, we get in there and make it difficult for the other team, and we work as hard as we can.
“I think that any football fan around the world can appreciate that.”
After getting a hostile welcome in this football-mad city, the Filipinos finally drew the appreciation of Indonesian fans after the match before 80,000 fans in Jakarta’s Bung Karno Stadium Sunday night.
Kind gestures from fans and motorists were a welcome sight for those in the team bus as it headed back to the hotel, where young fans later mobbed the players, posing for pictures and seeking autographs.
JAKARTA—The journey that quietly started in Vientiane, made a lot of noise in Hanoi and created a stir in Manila finally ended in Jakarta on Sunday night.
Ranged against a side with unquestioned pedigree in the Southeast Asian level, the Filipinos fell short, their title hopes vanquished by a 0-1 defeat to the Indonesians in the second leg of the semifinals of the AFF Suzuki Cup before a wild crowd of 85,000 at the Bung Karno Stadium here.
Indonesia won both legs—by the slimmest of margins—with the Filipinos defending valiantly to limit the production of the tournament’s best attacking side.
Cristian Gonzales, Indonesia’s Uruguayan-born striker, tormented the Philippines for the second straight match as his left-footed 25-yard strike in the 44th minute beat Neil Etheridge.
Gonzales also struck the winning goal in the first leg, his header sailing past Etheridge who slipped while trying to catch the long pass.
The Filipinos finished the game with 10 men after Chris Greatwich, who had missed a couple of good chances midway in the second half, was sent off for his second yellow card.
Just as surprising as the Filipinos’ run was the sudden rise of popularity of the sport in a country crazy about basketball and boxing.
Known as the Azkals, the Filipinos refused to give up until the final whistle, desperately throwing men forward and were almost punished several times.
They were limited to a series of half-chances early on with Phil Young-husband, Chris Greatwich and Anton del Rosario firing long-range shots over the bar.
The Philippine defense looked panicky at times as Indonesia raided the flanks.
Etheridge needed to intervene several times, moving out of his line to gather through balls, including Firman Utina’s pass to a rushing Gonzales in the 11th minute.
Indonesia had blown several chances to score until Gonzales struck. The Indonesian striker did well to keep his balance against Aly Borromeo, and before Rob Gier could shut him down, he rifled the shot that had Etheridge diving to his right in vain.
It was the second goal in the tie for the 34-year-old Gonzales, a veteran of the Indonesian Super League, who became a naturalized Indonesian before the start of the tournament.
True to its word, Indonesia refused to sit back on its slender one-goal lead as Muhammad Ridwan and Okto Maniani marauded the wings and Firman Utina and Ahmad Bustomi terrorized the Filipino defense at midfield.
The Filipinos saw three players booked in the first half with Gier getting a yellow for his mistimed challenge on Gonzales, Ian Araneta for an altercation with Hamka Hamsah and Greatwich for a clumsy tackle on Gonzales.
