The national Under-23’s journey for gold in the 31st South East Asian (SEA) Games football competition, ended after they were booted out of the tournament, falling to Nguyen Tien Linh’s extra-time winner during the semi-finals against the hosts and defending champions Vietnam on Thursday at the Viet Tri Stadium. They will be meeting Indonesia, who lost 0-1 to Thailand in the other semi-final earlier, for the bronze medal match on Sunday evening, in a repeat of the third placing match in the Philippines in 2005.
It was heartbreak for Brad Maloney’s boys. After weathering the storm from the Vietnamese backed by a full house support of 18,000, they thought they had done enough to force the match into the lottery of the penalty shootout, but off a corner with 10 minutes remaining in the second period of extra-time, Tien Linh rose unchallenged to head home into an empty net and send the young Golden Star Warriors into euphoria.
Vietnam who had at least an extra two day’s rest since the end of the group stages compared to their opponents, who also needed to travel 170km’s away for this knock-out encounter, were the dominant side throughout the match, keeping the Harimau Muda at bay with their tight defence that gave away very little.
Malaysia though, had the first look at goal after 17 minutes. Mukhairi Ajmal’s corner was cleared out of the area, only as far as Nik Akif Syahiran, who connected with a sweetly struck volley that almost found the bottom right corner, but goalkeeper Nguyen Van Toan was in no mood to be beaten. He has yet to concede a single goal up to this stage of the tournament.
Vietnam responded ten minute later, coming close with Tien Linh’s side foot shot past the onrushing Azri G. that begged for someone in red to tap home, after going through on goal following a superb forward pass.
Three minutes from the break, Tien Linh, who was left alone in the box, received the ball from the right and hits a snap shot towards goal. Azri G. dived to his right and parried the ball away, only to welcome Vietnam’s Ngam Man Dung who slid in for the rebound that went wide after being put off by Azri G.’s second attempt to rescue the situation.
Almost to the mid-point of the second half, the champions again threatened with Tien Linh’s run bearing down on goal, leaving the Malaysian’s in his wake until Azrin Afiq’s superb recovery tackle at the top of the box, dispossessed the striker with only Azri G. to beat.
With extra time looming in this physically draining match, tempers boiled over in the 83rd minute following some pushing and shoving between Hadi Fayyadh and No. 3, No.12, No.14, No.20 after Luqman Hakim was brought down near Vietnam’s penalty box. Surprisingly Hadi, who backed away from the incident, went into the referee’s book as did Van Toan. The freekick lifted by Nik Akif was met by Safwan Mazlan, though his header was way above the target, with the Vietnamese backline no where in sight.
Into extra time, Malaysia had an opportunity with a long range effort from 30 metres with a rare attack 5 minutes in, again Van Toan, easily handled it.
Four minutes later, the best chance for the red shirts to wrap things up earlier arrived. Zikri Khalili’s flick-on header from Do Hung Dung’s corner, kindly fell for the unmarked Ly Cong Hoang Anh at the far post. Unbelievably. his tap in passed the right post with no one stationed there to clear. A lucky escape for the Yellow And Black.
Vietnam again came close to breaking the deadlock, a minute into the second period of extra time when No. 11’s free header sailed high above the target from a cross on the left that picked him out.
That disappointment did not matter though, as four minutes forward, Tien Linh’s goal sent them into the final, leaving Malaysia to fight for third place, a similar outcome as their previous meet at the same stage in the 2005 Philippines SEA Games, with Vietnam winning 2-1 then, and in the previous games of 2003, where Vietnam as hosts beat them 4-3.
Earlier, 16 time champions Thailand also needed an extra time goal to dispose Indonesia, in a repeat of the 2015 semi-finals, when they thrashed the latter 5-0 in Singapore. This time, the contest produced 4 red cards late in injury time at the expiry of the additional 30 minutes, 3 for the Indonesians and 1 for the War Elephants. Weerathep Pomphan’s 95th minute winner paved the way for the blue shirts to feature in a repeat of the 2005 final against Vietnam.
The next round of matches in both groups are as follows,
Final and third placing on Sunday : Vietnam vs Thailand, Indonesia vs Malaysia
Malaysia were gold medal winners of the football competition for 4 times in 1961, 1977, 1979 & 1989 before it became an age restricted competition from the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur (2001-2015 Under-23, 2017-2019 Under-22). Since the rule change, the Harimau Muda won twice in 2009 and 2011. In the 2019 Manila SEA Games, the Harimau Muda crashed out of the competition at the group stage, finishing second from bottom in a group that had Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor Leste. The last SEA Games medal the Harimau Muda picked up in football was a silver, after the 1-0 loss to Thailand in the 2017 final at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.