Veronica VanessaI guess I'm down with it. Being in Indonesia, it's difficult not to get the disease that had been attacking the nation this past weeks.
Like during any World Cup season, the nation was stricken with football-maniaism :O Just that this time we're all more hyped-up, cos although it's on a much smaller stage, the AFF (ASEAN Football Federation) Cup, it involves our very own players playing the finals! (:
Three days ago, things were quite out of control. Thousands of people wrecked havoc when the crowd management failed to control the crowds queueing to buy tickets for the finals. Shocking as it was, such mess was not really new to the nation. Disappointing, but luckily things got better after a few hours.
The first round of the finals in Malaysia was even more disappointing. With the crowds aiming lasers at the Indonesian goalkeeper and throwing firecrackers into the field, it seemed unavoidable that the goalkeeper eventually protested to the referee, leading to the match being stopped for a few minutes. Afterwards, the previously refreshed team's mental went downhill. The match ended with a score of 3-0 to Malaysia.
With the very high expectations and the long-running feud between Indonesia and Malaysia (usually stemming from claims over culture and traditions, such as batik, reog--I shall not elaborate too much lest I become too biased :P), of course everyone felt at the very least a little upset with the results. However, the football team was greeted at the airport with cheers and support from many Indonesians. That opened my eyes. The nation is maturing. Losing to its rival, the team was still loved by the people. The sense of pride is there. It wasn't much like that in the past. At that moment, I was starting to be really proud of Indonesia.
Today's match, the second round of finals, made me even more so. Well, it can't be helped that most of us Indonesians still hoped for a miracle to happen, that the team will at least scored 3-0 or more, at least giving us a chance to win the cup we had never won since 1991. The hope was threatened when the score still tied at 0-0 by half time, and almost entirely extinguished when the Malaysian team scored a goal.
But the Indonesian team pushed on. And I got worked up too. I was like, "C'mon, at least score a goal against them. Just one!" As the match continues, the crowd never stopped cheering.
Eventually, I got my wish granted! :D That actually makes things felt much better.
And all along the match, until the very last minute, the crowd never stopped cheering, the team never stopped attacking. Another goal was scored then (: At that time, however, I didn't care about the aggregate score anymore. I was proud of seeing everyone's fighting spirit. I've only seen such a spirit when the nation supported badminton, our area of specialty (or used to be? :S). To see the nation so bonded by another sports, wow.
On the other hand, the Malaysian team did really well. Their defense was always tough to break, their goalkeeper friggin difficult to pass through and their strikers were always ready to, uh, strike, of course. Their players won on stamina. Also, I notice that Indonesian players are on average shorter than their Malaysian counterparts -.- The team spirit's, however, commendable (:
Ah, that's why I love to watch sports. There are so much to observe and so much to learn or not to learn from. The laser incident, I mean. I admit, I saw the Malaysian goalkeeper getting lasered at during the finals in Jakarta too :/ Well, even for a grown-up nation, the temptation of a revenge is sweet, eh? :/ Not a good example to set, but hey, you can't totally blame that person for doing so :P It was such an obvious laser though -_-"
Well, the whole event just showed me that the nation can be really one to be proud of. Despite all the chaos that happened like racial clashes or religion ones, eventually we're still one nation.
I just hope that this spirit can be spread into other areas.
On a lighter note, some people counted that since the match between Indonesia and Malaysia before the finals ended 5-1 in favour of Indonesia, after the 0-3 and 2-1 finals, the total score will be 7-5 for Indonesia :P
Of course, the AFF Cup will have to wait for now.
Garuda di Dadaku. Wow. I'm liking that song.
-vNs-