Malaysia’s Under-23 squad returned home empty handed from the 31st South East Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam, after they lost 4-3 to Indonesia in the lottery of the penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 draw after regulation time in the bronze medal play-off on Sunday.
In a repeat of the third placing decider at the 2005 Sea Games in the Philippines, the young Garuda’s went ahead in the 69th minute through Ronaldo Kwateh, before the Harimau Muda forced the issue to the tie-breaker with Hadi Fayyadh’s equaliser nine minutes from time. Goalkeeper Ernando Ari was the catalyst for the red shirts victory, twice denying their neighbours for a 4-3 win during the shootout.
Shin Tae Yong’s boys began the brighter of the two, in spite of rain at Hanoi’s My Dinh National Stadium, coming close to opening the scoring on three occasions within five minutes. In the 3rd minute, Ronaldo sprang the offside trap with his blistering pace, but sent his shot straight to Rahadiazli Rahalim, Malaysia’s reserve keeper who was fielded in place of the injured Azri G., Quentin Cheng then got caught out of position in the 4th minute, but the shot from inside the box on the left, just flashed wide of the target at far post, while a minute later, Rahadiazli produced a superb save from near range with goal written all over it, after No.8 was put through by an excellent chip played over the Malaysian backline.
Malaysia then began to assert their dominance in the first half, without creating any real chances that troubled Ernando, until the 31st minute, when Indonesia’s No.1 caused some nervy moments for his team, losing the ball after diving to parry Safwan Mazlan’s low cross into the box from the left. Six minutes before the break, Quentin’s speculative long ball near the top of Indonesia’s box, was poorly punched by the goalkeeper, the ball spilling loose to Nur Azfar Fikri, and with a gaping goal, he shows all the immaturity of a 22 year old, smashing it into row Z.
Within a minute of the restart, Japan based Hadi saw his effort from near the ‘D’ come off the outside of the left post, then two minutes later, Luqman Hakim went on a run from the middle of Indonesian territory, taking on four defenders, before running out of steam with a low try from outside the box that lacked any sting. A minute forward, Nik Akif collected a pass into the box from skipper Mukhairi Ajmal on the right, then turned his marker to let fly from the edge of the six yard area, disappointingly though it crashed into the side netting.
Indonesia finally landed their first opportunity in the second half at the top of the hour, when Ronaldo’s drive from outside the penalty area went wide, after being set-up by Sabah’s Saddil Ramdani. Second later, a header at the back post off a corner from the left was confidently cleared off the line, with Malaysia packing bodies in the box to prevent any rips in their defence.
In the 65th minute, Ernando again came to Indonesia’s rescue, parrying away yet another try, this time at near post, after the Malaysian striker was fed with a cross from the left that found him completely unattended with only the keeper to beat. The Yellow And Black were baying for blood and they again threatened to go ahead a minute onwards, with Syahir Bashah’s scorcher near the ‘D’ that rocked the crossbar.
Indonesia who were living dangerously, found themselves in front in the 69th minute. A wonderful passing move that started in the middle of the park involving 4 players, tore open the Malaysian rearguard, allowing Ronaldo’s run on the right to go unnoticed by Azrin Afiq, picking up the lay-off from the middle by Marselino Ferdinan, then finishing with aplomb, lifting the ball over the onrushing Rahadiazli for 1-0.
Buoyed by the goal, Indonesia went looking for a second to kill of their opponents, and were nearly rewarded a couple of minutes later, with Marc Klok’s freekick from outside the box, that was tipped over the bar by Rahadiazli.
A quarter an hour from time, the Malaysians finally got over the shock of conceding earlier, and had yet another long ranger from outside the box that did not do anything to unnerve Ernando, lacking in pace and power despite being on target.
Deservedly, Malaysia drew level, with 9 minutes left. Hadi, fortuitously at the end of Syafik Ismail’s deflected cross from the right, unleashed an unforgiving stinger from inside the
penalty box coming off Rizky Ridho’s shoulder, then going past his goalkeeper into the roof of the net. It was game on for the wounded young tigers.
The final attempts in the 90 minutes came from the Malaysians with Luqman wasting a chance to win it, firing high above the frame of the goal after being set-up nicely for a finish, and skipper Mukhairi’s low drive that flashed across the goal causing Ernando’s scramble to cover.
With scores level at fulltime and no extra-time involved for this match, the tie then went down to the dreaded decider. Both Hadi and Indonesia’s Asnawi Mangkualam failed to convert the first kick. Hairey Hakim and Muhammad Ridwan, kept the scores level at 1-1 after two rounds, but Ernando then produced his second save in the shoot-out, diving low to the right, correctly guessing Luqman’s penalty. Marselino made no such mistake and Indonesia surged 2-1 at the expiry of the third round. Harith Haiqal kept Malaysia’s chances alive, bringing it back to 2-2, but only temporary before Saddil restored Indonesian advantage at 3-2. Mukhairi’s spotkick allowed the few Malaysians in the stands and the majority back home tuning through their television sets and mobile phones, to continue hoping, but Klok sent Rahadiazli the wrong way in the final kick of the match for Indonesia to claim the bronze.
The next and biggest assignment for Maloney & Co this year is the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Under-23 Asian Cup from June 1-19, 2022 in in Uzbekistan. Making only their second appearance at this stage of the competition, Malaysia is in Group C, together with champions South Korea, again with Thailand, who were in the same group with them during the qualifying round in Mongolia last October and at this SEA Games, and Vietnam, who they recently met during the recent semi-final loss here.
In the gold medal match later that night at the same venue, Vietnam successfully defended their title in front of their home fans, edging 16-time champs Thailand who last won in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur games, 1-0. Nham Manh Dung’s 83rd minute header gave the Golden Star Warrior only their 3rd SEA Games football gold since the competition began in 1959.