Fans find new love with national team

Frequent visitors to Jakarta may prefer the malls, but this weekend’s hot gathering spot is the unlikely Bung Karno Stadium in Senayan where Indonesia’s new national soccer team sweethearts are playing in the AFF Suzuki Cup semifinal.

In the past couple of weeks, Indonesia has been engulfed by the euphoria of having a well-performing team.

Those living in Greater Jakarta, or even visitors to the city, have headed directly to the largest stadium in the country to watch their new heroes play other Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Young Jakartans, who usually loiter in the myriad malls around the capital, have now marked the stadium as a new haunt, where they can see and support the national team, and of course, be seen.

Sarah and her friends began following the progress of national team striker Firman Utina and his colleagues in the stadium when the squad advanced to the semifinal earlier. She even adorned herself with a red-and-white novelty hat to show her support.

“I bought this for Rp 30,000 [US$3.30] just to support the team,” she said Sunday before the second leg of the semifinal between Indonesia and the Philippines.

Siblings Icha and Fahmi had to wait in line for a few hours just to get temporary tickets on Friday.

“We wanted to buy tickets on Friday, but we thought the lines would be packed in the morning so we decided to buy them in the afternoon,” Icha said.

“Thank God we got them by Friday evening or we would be stuck in [the chaos that ensued at the ticket office] on Saturday.”

Despite their extra efforts to buy tickets, the siblings said they received old tickets dated Dec. 4 for the Thailand-Malaysia match.

“I really hope these tickets are valid for Sunday’s match. We will complain if they’re not,” Icha said.

Soccer fans, who on Saturday were given queuing cards to pick up their tickets later on Sunday, had reportedly still not received their tickets as promised. Many were seen struggling to buy tickets a few hours before the match.

Tempers flared when some fans couldn’t get ticket due to limited seats. But some fans, such as Iman from Yogyakarta, had a few tricks up their sleeves.

Donning a colorful costume, Iman said security at the stadium allowed him to watch Thursday’s first leg of the semifinal because of his exceptional look.

“Luckily for me, the [security personnel] let me in. I hope they let me in again for today’s match,” he said.

Love for the national team is on proud display — and sale — at the Senayan sports complex, with hawkers selling themed souvenirs — mostly T-shirts, hats and scarves.

Most of the T-shirts are red and adorned with the word Indonesia or a picture of the Garuda (the country’s symbol). Some of vendors even hawk replicas of the official team jersey. The best-selling ones are replicas of the jerseys of strikers Irfan Haarys Bachdim and Cristian Gonzales.

The T-shirts sell for between Rp 25,000 and Rp 40,000, twice the normal price.