Blue is the colour for Malaysia

akarta: Malaysia will once again be donning their "lucky" blue away jerseys when they face Indonesia in the second leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup final at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Wednesday.

While yellow shirts have been the traditional first-choice colours for the Tigers, they have regularly worn their alternate kit during this year's tournament. The blue shirt has been used for four of their six matches so far including both of Malaysia's home games, against Vietnam in the semi-finals and Indonesia in the final.

"Apparently the blue-coloured shirt has brought us quite a bit of luck," said Malaysia team manager Subahan Kamal. "Coach K. Rajagobal believes in that so we will stick with it for the second leg of the final."

The statistics seem to support that view as Malaysia have been unbeaten so far in the blue kit, winning three of the four game that they have played in it. Meanwhile, they have yet to win a game in the yellow shirts, losing 5-1 to Indonesia and drawing 0-0 against Vietnam.

According to Subahan, Vietnam did not agree to Malaysia's request to use blue in the second leg of the semi-finals as the white shorts that are part of their away kit would have clashed with the all-white Vietnamese kit. However, Indonesia have agreed to Malaysia's request to use their blue shirts and socks with the black shorts of their home kit.

"It is not that big a deal," Subahan explained. "If the other team had said that we cannot use that colour, then we would use yellow. But Indonesia said today during the team managers' meeting that it would not be a problem as long as we wore different coloured shorts."

In addition to being the team's lucky colour so far at this year's AFF Suzuki Cup, blue also brought good fortune to Malaysia at last year's Southeast Asia Games, when they beat Vietnam 1-0 in Vientiane for the first gold medal in 20 years.

Indonesia, who lost for the first time in the tournament after donning white shirts for the 3-0 defeat by Malaysia in the first leg of the final, will revert to their traditional home colours of red shirts and white shorts for the return match.