The Burmese football team won an unexpected victory against Indonesia in the final of the Merdeka tournament at the Shah Alam Stadium in Malaysia on Tuesday night, ending 35 years of disappointment following their last triumph in the competition in 1971, also against Indonesia.
In front of a reported 30,000 fans, Burma managed a 2-1 win despite being the lowest-ranked team in the tournament. Goals from Kyaw Thura in the 61st minute and captain Soe Myat Min in the 85th minute gave the Burmese side a largely undeserved two-nil lead, Malaysia’s New Straits Times reported, before Indonesia managed a goal in the 87th minute from Zaena Arif, which guaranteed a tense finish to the match.

The Burmese team claimed US $10,000 in prize money as winners of the competition. The triumph means Burma has ended a dismal period in which the team has failed to win the annual Merdeka tournament and has only once made it into the knockout stages of Southeast Asia’s other main competition, the Tiger Cup, since the country’s footballing heyday in the 1960s and 1970s.