Riedl not concerned at playing away
Indonesia chief Alfred Riedl is undaunted by the prospect of facing a passionate Malaysian full house ahead of their AFF Suzuki Cup final encounter.
Riedl will lead his charges outside of Jakarta for the first time in this tournament when they tackle Malaysia in their first leg tie final at the Bukit Jalil Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
Indonesia hosted their group games and also played both legs of their semi-final matches against the Philippines at their intimidating Gelora Bung Karno Stadium as the latter could not arrange a venue required for the game.
However, the Austrian coach believes that contrary to popular notion, his side will thrive in their opponents' backyard.
"Of course I can't say how the reaction will be ahead of the match but I don't think that it will have too much of an effect on our players," he told www.affsuzukicup.com.
"I'm not sure how the players will react because we had no chance to play away in our semi-final against the Philippines.
"It might have been easier to play one of those semi-final games in Manila because they might have opened things up a bit more in front of their home fans. Because they had to play both games in Jakarta, they closed the field and made things very tight.
"I don't know how Malaysia will approach this match though so we will have to wait and see."
Whilst Riedl is quietly confident about his side's chances of lifting their first ever AFF Suzuki Cup crown, he cannily noted that the Malaysians are no easy meat, despite their 5-1 loss to the former in their group opener.
"I am confident now but I was also confident to win it with Vietnam in 1998 but we lost to a better team," said Riedl, who oversaw Vietnam's 1-0 loss to Singapore on home soil 12 years ago.
"We don't know how the match will run. We will try but you cannot forget that Malaysia are a very good defensive team. They did not concede a goal against Thailand in the group stage and they did not concede in both semi-final games against Vietnam."
Indonesia will have some fitness concerns with skipper Firman Utina, leading marksman Cristian Gonzales and winger Oktovianus Maniani arriving in Kuala Lumpur with slight injuries.
Forward Irfan Bachdim has recovered from his injury that saw him miss the second leg of the semi-final match while Riedl will have to decide between Yongki Aribowo, Bambang Pamungkas or Irfan to partner Gonzalez up front.