by Law Yong Wei and Fabius Chen | Published on: 09 Jun 2015
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Confident, controlled and, ultimately, comfortable.
Indonesia rarely had to get out of first gear on Tuesday evening, as they eased to a 2-0 win over the Philippines at the Jalan Besar Stadium that sets up a grandstand finish to Group A.
“It was a good performance but we’ll need to see more from them in the next game,” said Indonesia assistant coach Mustaqem, whose side can now look forward to a winner-take-all clash against 28th SEA Games hosts Singapore on Thursday.
Going into the game as odds-on favourites against the already-eliminated Filipinos, Indonesia took just four minutes to get off the mark through captain Evan Dimas, who latched onto Vava Mario Yagola’s pass before slotting the ball past Florencio Badelic Jr.
It was 2-0 just nine minutes later; this time, it was Paulo Oktavianus laying it on a plate for Evan to sidefoot home after impressive work down the left flank.
“Our backline was exposed due to immaturity and a lack of international exposure,” lamented Philippines coach Marlon Maro, whose side bow out of the competition with zero points from four outings.
With the points in the bag, Indonesia were able to take their foot of the pedal; withdrawing key attackers Evan, Adam Alis Setyano and Ahmad Nufiandani in the second half as they turned their attention to Thursday’s clash against Singapore.
“That was one of the reasons (for the changes),” confirmed Mustaqem, whose side need only a draw to pip the hosts to a semi-final berth on goal difference.
“We wanted to keep our players fresh, so that we can have our best XI going for three points against Singapore.”
Indonesia rarely had to get out of first gear on Tuesday evening, as they eased to a 2-0 win over the Philippines at the Jalan Besar Stadium that sets up a grandstand finish to Group A.
“It was a good performance but we’ll need to see more from them in the next game,” said Indonesia assistant coach Mustaqem, whose side can now look forward to a winner-take-all clash against 28th SEA Games hosts Singapore on Thursday.
Going into the game as odds-on favourites against the already-eliminated Filipinos, Indonesia took just four minutes to get off the mark through captain Evan Dimas, who latched onto Vava Mario Yagola’s pass before slotting the ball past Florencio Badelic Jr.
It was 2-0 just nine minutes later; this time, it was Paulo Oktavianus laying it on a plate for Evan to sidefoot home after impressive work down the left flank.
“Our backline was exposed due to immaturity and a lack of international exposure,” lamented Philippines coach Marlon Maro, whose side bow out of the competition with zero points from four outings.
With the points in the bag, Indonesia were able to take their foot of the pedal; withdrawing key attackers Evan, Adam Alis Setyano and Ahmad Nufiandani in the second half as they turned their attention to Thursday’s clash against Singapore.
“That was one of the reasons (for the changes),” confirmed Mustaqem, whose side need only a draw to pip the hosts to a semi-final berth on goal difference.
“We wanted to keep our players fresh, so that we can have our best XI going for three points against Singapore.”