INDONESIA are dicing with danger with five players on yellow cards, including hotshot Christian Gonzales, for the first-leg final clash against Malaysia.
Another booking for them at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil Sunday will mean suspension from the second-leg match at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta on Dec 29.
The other Indonesians with a yellow card are defenders Ahmad Bustomi Muhammad Ridwan and Hamka Hamzah and speedy midfielder Okto Maniani.
Team manager Andi Tabusalla said that two of his players were doubtful starters for the first-leg match. They are Okto and another midfielder, Firman Utina, who are nursing injuries picked up in the second-leg semi-final match against the Philippines last week.
“It is going to a classic match and everyone will be wanting to see how we perform away from home for the first time. It is going to be an exciting 90 minutes of football,” said Andi at the pre-match conference at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
All eyes will be on Gonzales, who is the leading scorer in the competition with three goals, including vital strikes in 1-0 margin victories over the Philippines in the semi-finals. The Uruguay-born hitman also scored in Indonesia’s 5-1 rout of Malaysia in the opening Group A match on Dec 1.
Andi said that they hope that playmaker Okto would be available for the match as Indonesia needed his pace to trouble Malaysia.
“We will see how they (players nursing injuries) cope in the next couple of days,” he said.
Malaysia also have three players with a booking each – striker Mohd Safee Sali, midfielder Mohd Amirulhadi Zainal and defender Mahali Jasuli.
Safee scored both goals in Malaysia’s 2-0 win over Vietnam in the first-leg semi-final last week.
The tournament rules allowed players on single yellow card picked up in group matches to be wiped out in the semi-final stage.
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