This anomaly happened during Indonesia's 1-2 loss against Oman on 6th January 2010. It was an Asian Cup Qualifying games, the 5th match in the group stage. It was decisive enough to ensure Indonesia eliminated from Asian Cup 2011 in Qatar. In fact, the score is sometimes deceiving, like in this particular match. It could have easily been more goals for the visitor if not for their bad finishing. Indonesia really displayed a lackluster performance. Frustrations spread across all Indonesians in the stadium, the crowd is not an exception.
When Indonesia was trailing by one goal, in the second half injury time, comes the real 'man of the match' onto the pitch. His name is Hendri Mulyadi. He was so disappointed after seeing any Indonesia's hopes of qualifying dashed by their awful performance, and he couldn't bear it any longer. As a result, he deliberately jumped onto the pitch and dribbled the ball up about 40 metres on the pitch before firing a weak shot, which Oman goalkeeper, Ali Al-Habsi comfortably parried away.
During the process, the photographs showed that he ran past Indonesian coach, Benny Dollo, and player, Boas Solossa, along with some other players. He was arrested by the police soon after his shot.
Here is the footage of his heroic action:
After the match, he told Metro TV, "I know what I did was wrong, but I couldn’t stand it. Why is it so hard to them to win?"
"I hope my action will become a wake-up call for the Indonesian Football Association," he said.
Mulyadi’s stunt has earned him star status.
He has been interviewed by various local TV stations, and nearly 6,000 people joined a Facebook page lauding his action.
"Thank you, Hendri. I support you to become the chairman of PSSI," Rafis Wijaya wrote on the Facebook page, referring to the Indonesian Football Association.
A true man of the match for sure.
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