Indonesia beat Brunei thanks to its superiority

After the opening match with a difficult victory over Cambodia 2-1, coach Shin Tae-yong's teachers and students received many criticisms. The Korean leader himself was also angry. Therefore, meeting the weakest team in the Brunei table is considered an opportunity for them to relieve themselves.

This is also considered a momentum match for the team of thousands of islands before meeting Thailand three days later in a battle that can decide the position in the group. Therefore, coach Shin decided to put away many pillars in this match.

But things are not quite as favorable as Indonesia thinks. After the first 20 minutes of meeting Brunei's resistance, they opened the scoring. Starting from a quick attack on the left wing, naturalized striker Ilija Spasojevic received the ball in the penalty area and released it back to let Syahrian Abimanyu cut his heart into the far corner.

Indonesia continued to create many scoring opportunities but missed, including a free kick from outside the box that bounced off the post. In the 38th minute, Indonesia also played more than people, after defender Jufri fouled in front of the penalty area and received a second yellow card. The team of thousands of islands quickly took advantage of people to score the second goal, when the Brunei defender broke the ball and hit Indonesia's Ramdani into the net in the 41st minute.

Indonesia continued to dominate in the second half, but almost conceded a goal from Brunei's quick counterattack. However, striker Hakeme Said hit the Indonesian goalkeeper again.

Due to lack of players, Brunei mainly concentrated on defense. When they were down, they could not withstand the waves of Indonesia's ball. In the 59th minute, striker Egy Maulana headed home the net after Edo Febriansyah's pass to make it 3-0.

Just a minute later, striker Spasojevic hit his heel beautifully to increase the gap to 4-0. After scoring the goal, the Montenegrin naturalized foreign soldier celebrated with excitement. After that, he was also allowed to take a break to recuperate. Indonesia still maintains a fast attack speed. A few minutes after the ball hit the vertical post, Sananta cushioned the edge after a messy ball in the penalty area in the 68th minute to raise the score to 5-0.

Despite continuously receiving goals, Brunei still tried to counterattack. However, they never won against goalkeeper Nadeo Argawinata. On the contrary, they also had to receive two more goals in the 86th and 90+2 minutes.

The big victory helped Indonesia take the top of Group A before Thailand played the Philippines in the next match. On December 29, Indonesia returned to the fire pan Bung Karno to take on Thailand in the "final" match of Group A.