Malaysia-Indonesia Soccer Match Turns Into War of Words · Global Voices
Jerrenn Lam

Photo from twitpic page of NikeMY
Recently, the Malaysian soccer team had reason to cheer when it reached the finals of the Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup for the first time in 14 years by beating defending champion Vietnam, and beat Indonesia 3-0 in the first leg of the final that was played at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium.
However, Indonesian fans complained that Malaysian fans had distracted the Indonesian players by pointing laser lights at them, and showed their dissatisfaction through Twitter. Two hashtags made it into the worldwide trending topics, ‘Hate Malaysia’ and ‘#loveindonesia’.
Yopy Rinaldi blogged that the win by Malaysia was not special, as they had cheated when the referee did not take action against fans who used the laser light to distract the Indonesian goalkeeper.
The defeat in the match Indonesia vs Malaysia aff suzuki cup is not an embarrassing defeat.
malaysia cheating fans who do not support towards this match, and the referee did not seem wise here at malaysia violations, resulting in the fall of Indonesia in this aff suzuki cup match.
However, jasonmumbles tweeted that ‘We, Malaysians, are ashamed of the laser incident but you can't say we cheat because we only scored AFTER the incident’.
While many took to Twitter to protest Malaysia's alleged cheating, some tried to reason that such an incident is no cause for harsh words.
PrinceofPopJB tweeted ‘Asians were #Family right ?? if we are #Family STOP HATIN’ EACH OTHER . STOP HATE MALAYSIA just #LoveMalaysia and #LoveIndonesia :)’
Apmaaaar also tweeted that the reaction from many Indonesians was uncalled for.
‘We LOVE INDONESIA, we PROUD OF INDONESIA, but we dont need to HATE MALAYSIA. Stop blaming and walk on!!’
The second leg of the final will be played at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta on the 29 of December, and Indonesia needs to score at least four goals to win the title.
Pictures of the final was also shared by Wakarimasenlol, and the highlights of the match can be found on YouTube.