Gendut Christiawan is the hero of the Indonesian team with a double strike to take his team into the final of the Tiger Cup today.

One crisp header and another left footed finish from the 22-year old Christiawan and in between an opportunistic goal from Uston Nawawi was all it needed for Indonesia to break the hearts of the Vietnamese in their semi-final clash at the Rajamangala stadium.

There will be lots of tears shed from Hanoi to Ho Chih Minh city but as the Vietnamese coach Alfred Riedl commented after the loss: "Of course we all feel sad. But what is there to cry? We were just not good enough to win."

But for the thousands of neutrals up in the stands today, they need little convincing to tell which is the better team. The red-shirted Vietnamese of course but their possession and the commitment was never really exploited to the hilt.

In the end they were floored by a sucker punch delivered late in the second period of extra time which left them still chasing and dreaming of their first major title in South East Asian football.

But it was the Indonesians who shot into the lead with a 39th goal from Christiawan who rose high to meet a cross from Uston Nawawi from the left and the Vietnamese were stunned.

They had to labour hard and it was only in the 45th min that they earned the equaliser through the combination of Le Hyunh Duc and Nguyen Hong Son, which allowed the latter to fire home from 10 metres out.

But the second half still failed to see Vietnam raise the tempo of the match and like the first they never took advantage of the possession they had and score the goals to extinguish the challenge of the Indonesians.

Instead they allowed the Indonesians to score their second goal in the 75th min and again it was Christiawan who had a hand in it. He had chested the ball and let fly from 30 metres out only to see his shot came off the upright and Nawawi followed through to hit the rebound home.

Vietnam looked finished until the very last kick from Vu Cong Tuyen guided the ball into the Indonesian net after Do Van Khai had supplied the cross from the right and Vietnam lived to fight again.

But the Indonesians were to have the last say in the final minute of extra time with Christiawan delivering the knock-out punch with a left footed shot from 20 metres out.

Indonesia are through and Vietnam were buried.

source: www.tigerbeer.com