For the first time the real spirit of a tiger came out from our national players during a 90-minute duel with Indonesia in the AFF Suzuki Cup final first-leg in Bukit Jalil last night. With almost 85000 supporters from both sides of the teams, Bukit Jalil Stadium was packed with yellow-black and red-white color combinations. Although in the semi-final match against Vietnam in Bukit Jalil recently saw Malaysia had won 2-0 but Rajagopal's team only fought hard with dangerous attacks to the opponents' goal in the second half of the game. 

However, last night game saw the Malaysian players wonderfully controlled the game from the very start with briliant tactics and aggressive play. To me, if Malaysia wants to take the trophy home, Malaysian team needs to win with at least two goals while not giving away any goals to the Indonesians in Bukit Jalil to secure a better chance when visiting Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in three days time. Despite both teams had a few chances to open the deadlock in the first 45 minutes, the first half registered no goals.

The laser beam incident after the break was like a blessing in disguise for the Tiger. Although no one can confirm who was or were perpetrators behind that incident (could be Malaysian supporters who sat among the Indonesians), the incident should not be taken too seriously as this kind of occurrences are normal in football matches. When the officials stopped the game for five minutes, the tense increased inside the stadium. Firecrackers can be seen thrown into the pitch from the Malaysian supporters side. Perhaps Indonesian supporters threw water bottles too. As I only watched the match at Stadium Astro, I can't really describe the real situations. 

Soon after the game resumed, Safee Sali scored the opening goal for the Tiger. Norshahrul worked beautifully passed a few defenders and made a good ball for Safee to finish it. The second goal also looked like the first with Norshahrul once again got through a few opponents before crossing the ball to the middle but a slight deflection from an Indonesian defender, the ball dropped nicely in front of Ashari Shamsudin's leg before he fired a shot to the right roof of the Garuda's goal. Their goalkeeper Markus seems hopeless at this point.

Not long after the second goal, Tiger's defender Mahali made a brilliant lob from outside the penalty box finding Safee before he fired a free header into the goal mouth, and once again Markus was caught unprepared. Late in the game, Malaysia should be awarded a penalty kick when S.Kuna was tackled by the Indonesian goalie inside the box but the Japanese referee just approved it. Despite the win, the Tigers should not be distracted and over confident. Indonesia just need a 4-0 win in Jakarta and they already proved that can be a reality when they humiliated Malaysia 5-1 earlier in group match.

So, for now, well done tigers!!