Thailand lost to a South Korea team yesterday in the King's Cup. I have no idea which South Korea, it certainly weren't the first team and they didn't even include the Arsenal striker Park, but anyone the Thais played them and got beat 3-1.
Coach Winnie Schaefer after the game said the Thai team weren't very fit.

After sensationally walking out on Pelita Jaya last Friday, Indonesian international Diego Michiels has reported to have signed for Persija, the version playing in the officially recognised Indonesia Premier League.
He said he quit Pelita Jaya, who play in the unofficial Indonesia Super League because he was worried about his place in the international team following announcements from the PSSI, the FA, that only players with IPL teams could be called up.

Malaysian football may be riding high regionally with the national team joint holders of the SEA Games and the ASEAN Cup but things ain't so hot domestically. Teams with little in the way of a support base or culture like KL PLUS, MyTeam and Kuala Muda have fallen by the wayside in recent years and now problems are circulating around Kuala Lumpur.

Former Indonesia Under 23 coach Rahmad Darmawan has admitted it was decisions taken by the PSSI that forced him to step down. He had earlier led Indonesia to the SEA Games Final where they lost on penalties to Malaysia.
The PSSI announced only players who take part in their own Indonesia Premier League would be eligible for the national team.

In yet more humiliation for the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI), Rahmad Darmawan has stepped down as coach of the Under 23 team. He says the reason is because the team failed to win the SEA Games; they were beaten by Malaysia on penalties in the final.
However the PSSI had said that the national team could only call on players who played in the 'official' Indonesia Premier League, a continuation of the failed LPI last season which has failed to attract the best clubs and players.

Three years ago it was Singaporeans who flocked to play in Indonesia. Now it is the turn of Malaysians to be attracted by the glamour and chaos.
First Safee Salee. Now comes news his club Pelita Jaya are interested in SEA Games captain Baddrol Bahtiar.

After years of concentrating on young players, a policy that led them to the Copa Indonesia semi finals in 2007 but no silverware, shades of Arsenal, Pelita Jaya ditched that policy when they surprised everyone by signing Malaysian striker Safee Sali who had topped scored at last year's ASEAN Cup, hosted by Indonesia.

The AFC told the Indonesian Football Association the new season had to begin by a certain date or they would lose the right to enter teams in continental football next season. So, amid much ballyhoo, the Indonesia Premier League kicked off on 15 October when Persib hosted Semen Padang.
A few more games were scheduled but never took place and the competition, fully one game old, went into hibernation for the SEA Games, a period of six weeks.

Will the lessons of the deaths at the SEA Games Final be learnt? Check out my Jakarta Globe Column

The Malaysian football league may not have many teams. Just 14 in the top flight Super League and 12 in the Super League. But when you add the FA Cup and the Malaysia Cup what you have is a domestic season that begins in January and finishes at the end of October. Then the best players get to prepare for the SEA Games or the AFF Cup depending which year we are in.

BUKIT JALIL: Barely four days after the country celebrated a scintillating victory in the final of the Sea Games football final in Jakarta, the Tigers suffered a reality check.

Last night at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium, the message was chilling, and yet loud and clear — that though the Sea Games gold signaled a triumph, Malaysian are still minnows when they step out of the boundaries of Southeast Asia.

Reports in Indonesia today suggest that Kelantan and Malaysia goalkeeper Khairul Fahmie is a target for Persib Bandung. Fahmie, who has impressed many with his performances for the national team on the way to winning the AFF Cup last year and the SEA Games earlier this week.

However his coach at Kelantan, Englishman Peter Butler, has said that Fahmie is going nowhere.

By Chris Wright

Soooo...this guy showed up to cheer on Indonesia in their SEA (Southeast Asian) Games semi-final against Vietnam in Jakarta a couple of days ago and he bought what appears to be his talcum powder with him though surely chafing isn't going to be a problem when you turn up to a match in nothing but a slathering of red body paint and your pyjama bottoms?

The 2011 Malaysian season kicked off back in January and for the members of the victorious Under 23 team that won the SEA Games on penalties in Jakarta last night they must wait a bit longer for their season to end.
They flew back to KL today after their 120 minute and penalty slog against Indonesia and tomorrow night they play Syria at the Bukit Jalil Stadium in KL in the Olympics Qualifiers.

Not many of us will have experienced anything like it. There are 100,000 people in the stadium urging you on while tens of millions round the country will have their fists clenched on the edge of their seats in homes and warungs. Despite everyone being behind you it must be the loneliest walks ever.

Where to begin?
There are times when perhaps we should just hold our hands up and say well done to both teams, neither deserve to lose. Go on, share the bloody thing. Won't happen though. We demand winners and where there is a winner there must be a loser. The crying shame of sport.
On 18' with Indonesia leading 1-0 through Dwi Cahyo Gunawan I turned to the wife and said Malaysia would win.

It's the dream final for the SEA Games. A repeat of last year's ASEAN Cup, albeit at Under 23, today's final between Indonesia and Malaysia will keep the organizers happy as fans queue to see the two foes go head to head for local pride.

At least 88,000 are expected to fill the Bung Karno with the vast majority hoping to see the local side win and the Malaysians humiliated.

With just one week before the Indonesia Premier League is due to restart after a lengthy break for the SEA Games comes news that Mitra Kukar, who won promotion from the Divisi Utama last season, may withdraw and join the Indonesia Super League.
Mitra Kukar are due to play Persib next Saturday but a Persib fan site, Persibholic, is suggesting the team from East Kalimantan won't play the game as there is a big chance they will withdraw from the competition.

Malaysia limped past Myanmar 1-0, Indonesia huffed and puffed before defeating Vietnam 2-0 (Patrick Wanggai, Titus Bonai) so the SEA Games Final in Jakarta tomorrow night is a rerun of last year's AFF Cup Final between Indonesia and Malaysia.
Expect another sell out crowd at the Bung Karno as the ticket prices and rain are doing nothing to dampen Indonesian's enthusiasm for, finally, following a winning team.

BANGKOK POST

The Thai football team yesterday offered apologises to fans for their early exit at the SEA Games.

The squad returned home yesterday after three defeats and only one win in Group A at the biennial event.

"I apologise to our fans for our failure," said coach Prapol Pongpanich.

JAKARTA - His Singapore under-23 side crashed out of the SEA Games football tournament on Thursday night, but Slobodan Pavkovic (picture) was game enough to meet the media over breakfast yesterday.
A year ago the Lions team were booted out in the group stages of the AFF Suzuki Cup and, along with coach Radojko Avramovic, faced a torrent of criticism back home.

While their South East Asian neighbours were either being thrashed in the latest World Cup Qualifiers or were focused on the SEA Games in Indonesia, Malaysia were hard at work looking to sustain their recent run of success.
They played a couple of friendlies in India against the national team and drew their first game 1-1 (Safiq Rahim) before losing the second 3-2 when Pelita Jaya striker Safee Sali scored twice.

VVIP - 1,000,000 IDR (approx $110)VIP West - 700,000 IDRVIP East - 500,000 IDRCategory 1 - 300,000 IDRCategory 2 - 200,000 IDRCategory 3 - 100,000 IDR
Nope, these prices aren't to go and see Brazil play Spain. It's for the SEA Games UNDER 23s in Jakarta. The first game is Malaysia v Myanmar followed by Indonesia v Vietnam tomorrow night at the Bung Karno and the Final, expect similar prices, is on Monday.

SEA Games
Singapore v Thailand 2-0Indonesia v Malaysia 0-1
Laos v Vietnam 1-3
Malaysia meet Myanmar in the first semi final on Saturday while Indonesia have to play Vietnam. We're in for a repeat of the 2009 SEA Games final or the 2010 AFF Cup final!

Once upon a time Thailand stood imperious at the biennial SEA Games. They won the trophy eight years straight, they deemed it their own personal cup and winning was a right.
Not anymore. For the second successive competition the Thais failed to proceed beyond the group stage. Two years ago in Vientiane the vitriolic Thai media had Steve Darby to blame.

Read a tweet from my timeline that goes like this before the Indonesia-Malaysia SEA Games match after the Cubs defeated the supposedly perennial powerhouses Thailand 2-0.

"This is e first (and probably will be e only) time a 2-0 win over Thailand feels like a defeat..."

Can't blame that sense of pessimistic when the Cubs initially failed in achieving the target that mammoth task of four goals against the Thais because the goal difference between them and the Malaysians, whom they defeated the hosts to progress to the semi-finals.

Read a tweet from my timeline that goes like this before the Indonesia-Malaysia SEA Games match after the Cubs defeated the supposedly perennial powerhouses Thailand 2-0.

"This is e first (and probably will be e only) time a 2-0 win over Thailand feels like a defeat..."

Can't blame that sense of pessimistic when the Cubs initially failed in achieving the target that mammoth task of four goals against the Thais because the goal difference between them and the Malaysians, whom they defeated the hosts to progress to the semi-finals.

Ticket prices for the up coming friendly between LA Galaxy and an Indonesian team of sorts are as follows
VIP West - 750,000 IDRVIP East - 500,000 IDRCategory 1 - 250,000 IDRCategory 2 - 150,000 IDRCategory 3 - 75,000 IDR
Again it will be interesting to see what kind of crowd the game draws following the SEA Games campaign

World Cup Qualifiers
Singapore v China 0-4 5,474
4 - Singapore 5 0 0 1-13 0
Thailand v Australia 0-1 19,400
3 - Thailand 5 1 1 3 4-6 4
Indonesia v Iran 1-4 (Bambang Pamungkas) 2,000
4 - Indonesia 5 0 0 5 3-16 0
I posted yesterday on Twitter my concerns over the likely attendance at the Bung Karno for the Iran game in a week when the Indonesian Under 23 team were wowing fans at the SEA Games.

Arthur Irawan may not be the best known player in Indonesia. It seems even the various national team selectors weren't aware of his presence or talent as the 18 year old striker wasn't included in the current SEA Games squad.
Maybe not good enough for his national team but Irawan was obviously good enough for La Liga as Espanyol have signed him.

Timor Leste surprised everyone at the SEA Games by winning their opening games against Laos and Philippines.
Now they need to ensure their locally based players, deprived of a league, get the chance to play competitive football on a regular basis.
And that is the main idea behind my latest column in the Jakarta Globe!

Finally added images from last night's SEA Games fixtures. Philippines get thumped by Myanmar while Lamnao stars for Laos against Timor Leste.
Check out Asian Football Pictures

We are one week into the SEA Games football competition and the games have been marked by pitifully low attendances so far. While Timor Leste attracted plenty of supporters for their games at Lebak Bulus Cambodia have been followed by a few embassy staff and teams like Thailand and Singapore have seen their support swallowed up by the cavernous Bung Karno Stadium.

Scree-grab from the livestreamingWhen asked after the loss to the Jordanians earlier in their first meeting of the qualifiers if we still stand a chance of making to the next round, assistant coach V Sundramoorthy said there's still "mathematical" chance of doing so if we could take "maximum points out of the remaining matches".

You could see the internet wariors racing for their keyboard once Singaore defender Nigel Vanu received a straight red after lashing out at an Indonesia player during their SEA Games encounter at the Bung Karno earlier this afternoon. 1- 0 against the hosts following poor performances against Malaysia and Cambodia, Vanu's red gave them a target for their opprobrium.

Like mentioned, I did not get to see the match that Cubs lost to the Indonesians due to work.
However, here's the Youtube clip of the match via a Vietnamese broadcaster.
General thoughts of the game gathered online lauded the performance of the Singapore side for keeping the scoreline respectable especially with their performance in the second half, after conceding two goals and a player sent off (Nigel Vanu)in the first half.

2007 seems a long time ago. That was the last time Thailand won the SEA Games, a competition they had come to view as one they were entitled to win. After all, 2007 was their 8th consecutive triumph, a run dating back to 1993.
No more. They were humiliated in 2009, failing to get past the group stage for the first time in yonks conceding late goals in a draw against Vietnam and, crucially, the deciding game against Malaysia when the eventual winners scored in injury time.

Two contrasting emotions depicted in the picture snapped off the television after the game with a grim-looking Cambodian's Korean coach Lee Tae-Hoon (top half of the picture) pondering what could have gone wrong after two straight defeats in Jakarta.
While his counterpart Sloban Pavkovic (below half) breathe a sight of relieve having see the Cubs came back from a goal deficit to beat the Khmers 2-1 in the near-empty Senayan with headers from Khairul Nizam and Nigel Vanu.

Screen-grab off TV after the game was over...The just concluded match saw the Cubs walked away with a 0-0 draw against the defending SEA Games champions Malaysia at the Senanyan in Jakarta in this "Group of Death" opener.
Due to work, I could only watched the second half of the match and therefore I am not in the best position to give an all-round review of the match.

Screen-grab off TV after the game was over...The just concluded match saw the Cubs walked away with a 0-0 draw against the defending SEA Games champions Malaysia at the Senanyan in Jakarta in this "Group of Death" opener.
Due to work, I could only watched the second half of the match and therefore I am not in the best position to give an all-round review of the match.