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Football

Brand New Coach, Same Old Indonesia

After Indonesia's 1-3 defeat against Myanmar, the future doesn't look bright for new manager Luis Milla

Being a fan of Indonesia's football team is one of the most masochist things you can probably do. With every great rise, a crushing fall is never too far behind.

The 2016 AFF Cup loss was devastating. At the time, Indonesia was riding high after beating Thailand 2-1 at home. The second leg was heartbreaking, Thailand won the cup on aggregate after drawing the second leg at 2-2. Soon after Alfred Riedl's contract ended and Luis Milla was brought on to revitalize the team, which has been stagnant for years.

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We should've learned by this point that hope is a dangerous word in the world of football, especially when it comes to Indonesia national team. It's one simple word that can ruin everything. It's like attaching your hopes to a timebomb, we don't know when it's going to happen, but it will explode at some point.

For Milla, a small disaster happened in his first match against Myanmar, Indonesia's U-22 team lost 1-3 at home. It's a setback for the young team and as expected, insults came flying immediately at the Spanish coach.

The match started off pretty well as Indonesia tried to put press hard all over the field and caused difficulties for Myanmar controlling the ball. Indonesia's speedy wingers, Febri on the right flank and Saadil on the left, made the impression that our attack was going to be tough to stop. But of course, like always, Indonesia was terrible in the final third. Indonesia didn't create enough chances and they did, the finishing was terrible.

But when that one excellent pass was made, Indonesia took advantage of it. A sweet cross from Saadil connected with Nur Hadianto's header into the net. 1-0 for Indonesia. The match looked pretty good at that point.

But good things never seem to last and Indonesia reverted back to its old self. Once Milla sent on Evan Dimas and Ajax's Ezra Milian, who only recently granted Indonesian citizenship, as substitutes, the game fell apart. The first half high pressing was gone, Myanmar was controlling the game with ease. When we did come up with chances, bad decision making by the young players threw away our opportunity to score more goals.

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Indonesia's shoddy defense gave away a penalty kick for Myanmar, which they dispatched to make the match 1-2. You can sense dark clouds hovering above Luis Milla's career already. Milla's nightmare was cemented when Myanmar's last minute counter attack found an opening in Indonesia's poor defense line, making the final score 1-3. It's a bad start for Luis Milla and certainly shattered the expectations of Indonesia's football fans immediately.

This a massive early disappointment, but it doesn't necessarily spell disaster for Milla's reign. Basing everything off of only one match is terribly naive and unfair, especially when a manager has just taken the helm of a young team. However, this match now means Milla needs to do something positive to get public's trust back.

From strategical point of view, the coach didn't make a lot of mistakes. Many of the players did not play to their level. They also ran out of stamina quickly and rendered Milla's pressing strategy useless.

One can only hope (see, that word again!) that Tuesday's match was nothing but a minor setback in Milla's grand strategy for Indonesia. It's probably better to have those problems show up early so we know what can be fixed.

Milla and the team need time to adapt to one another. Time seems to be the key element when supporting Indonesia. Do you remember how low expectation was for Riedl's team on the last AFF? Somehow Indonesia made it to the final. Considering the Indonesian Football Association only gave a two year contract to Milla, we should probably lower our expectations.

Football analyst Darmanto Simaepo reminds us that there only has been only two foreign coaches delivered silverware: Tony Pogacnik and Anatoly Polosin. What do they have in common? They had time to build the national team since they worked with the team for more than three years. Milla however only has two tournaments to realize his vision on the field. If he fails, you can bet he will be sacked.