Indonesia wins and destroys Brunei
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, the strong victory over Brunei helped them to somewhat relieve themselves, becoming the perfect momentum for the team of thousands of islands before meeting Thailand in the match that determined the first place in the group.
In this match, coach Shin piled many pillars. However, Indonesia still dominated and created countless opportunities against Brunei - the team that had conceded 10 goals in the previous two matches. In addition, playing on the neutral ground of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) but they still received the support of thousands of home fans.
After the first 20 minutes of encountering the resistance of Brunei, the Indonesian players also 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 they all missed, including a free-kick from outside the box that bounced off the post. In the 38th minute, defender Jufri fouled in front of the penalty area and received a second yellow card, so Brunei had to play without people. Indonesia quickly took advantage of the man 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 was still overwhelming when the second half returned but almost conceded a goal from Brunei's quick counter-attack. However, striker Hakeme Said hit the Indonesian goalkeeper.
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 kept the speed of attack, a few minutes after the ball hit the vertical post, the 68th minute Sananta cushioned the wall after a messy ball in the penalty area 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.
