AFF Suzuki Cup Final this Sunday (at 7PM GMT +07:00)

[LVUER]

For you who don't know what it is, AFF Cup is kinda like Soccer League for South East Asia. The sponsor is Suzuki (I'm not spamming here) and the tournament is held every 5 2 years (now is 2010, the last event is 1995 1998, which is won by Vietnam). Obviously, all South East Asia countries participate in this events, and the strong "past" ones are Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam Thailand, Singapore, and obviously, Vietnam as the last cup winner. Indonesia (my country) is not that weak too, they often reach semi-finals... it's just they haven't win again for quite some time now...

This week is the final (against Malaysia), and there are two matches. December 26th in Malaysia and December 29th in Indonesia. Why I'm posting this here? I'm not a big soccer fan, but this year, Indonesia soccer team (my country) suddenly got a power boost with the arrival of two new player. They are not weak before, it's just they don't have strong offensive players. That's why with the arrival of these new players, their play can get really dangerous.

BTW, both Philippines and Malaysia also got a sudden boost of power. For Philliphines, it because they have 9 additional good players just recently (they're going to be a deadly opponents at next cup). While Malaysia, I don't know...

So now my country could finally have hopes to win the cup again, after so long... Until now, they have show us a great result, defeating Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and other countries with relative ease. They even defeat Laos 5-0 6-0. How can I'm not proud with them?

This final is more than a soccer team for both countries. It's a revenge event since we beat Malaysia 4-1 at last cup. And with lots of dispute between two countries lately. It's also about the pride of both countries...

Notes: My county soccer team is strong in South East Asia, but quite weak in Asia, since there are Korea, Japan, and China out there... (those are regular participants of World Cup, what do you expect?)

EDIT: some correction due to my mistake in information. Thanks to grim_reaper for correcting them.

[grim_reaper]

ehmm.. few corrections:
-AFF Suzuki Cup (previously known as Tiger Cup) is held every 2 years, the 2008 edition was won by Vietnam.
- The match between Indonesia and Laos was won by Indonesia 6-0.

All I can say is that, this year's tournament is very surprising. Two soccer powers in South East Asia, Thailand and Singapore (each of them have won the tournament 3 times), failed to reach the semifinals. In the other side, Philippines qualified for the semifinals for the first time in history. Philippines showed a impressive win over Singapore 2-0, and draw against Vietnam 0-0.

The final will also be a tight match between two neighboring countries, Indonesia and Malaysia. Malaysia reached their first final in 14 years and Indonesia will have their fourth. Both of them have good progress recently. Who's better? We'll see in 26 and 29 December.

[LVUER]

I've made some correction to the first post. Like I said, I'm not a real big fan of soccer, so my information is not 100% accurate. Thanks to grim_reaper for correcting them.

[LVUER]

Awww, sucks, Indonesia team lost 0-3 to Malaysia. Just like the newspaper (or rather a person) predicts. Guess he's even better than Paul...

There's been a laser incident that stop the match twice (and some fireworks that managed to get slip in by Malaysia supporters). This laser also "rumored" to be one of the reason Vietnam lose in such a grand manner. No concrete evidence, but the goal keeper's eyes are permanently damaged (though not too severe, he's not blind).

Still, I don't believe the Indonesia team would play THAT badly just because of that... Oh well, what can I say. Just suck it up, right? We have one more match to go!