November 5 -- So much for the good news on
Patay. He overexerted himself during weight training and managed to strain his wrist. He's expected to miss two weeks.
I was thinking of scheduling a friendly during our break till the next match to get some people back to fitness faster, but with this latest setback we are still so thin that I decided against it.
November 6 -- One out, one in.
Piterius Piter Urwan is back from his hernia recovery and he'll take Patay's place on the right of the defensive line for the next couple of matches.
November 10 @ Persinab(2-0-2). Persinab has bigger injuries than we do at the moment, as they'll be missing five players. They are slightly favored and play a 4-4-2, currently riding high after winning their last two games without conceding a goal. We'll look to be solid defensively and counterattack quickly in the early going.
It was easy to see why they are on a streak of not conceding goals early, they are good in the air and seem to anticipate the action on both ends of the pitch better than any of the other clubs we've faced so far. Just a real good solid club.
On the attack, they don't seem to have a real good sense of things, particularly in constant offsides calls. Of course, they do have a lot of injuries, so they are probably not using their top guys there.
18' -- It looked like we were starting to figure them out a bit. After a missplaced, seriously spinning cross-pitch pass went out form them, we took possession, and
Sutanto found
Yogi in the area on the right in-between two defenders. He passed up a decent shot to get a great one, leading
Ewangin beautifully right in front as his striker partner got behind his man and ran onto it with a full head of steam. The shot was blasted home from 10 yards, no chance at all for the keeper, and we go in front on the road 1-0!! An impressive attacking move, and Persinab's defensive streak is gone.
19' -- It didn't last long at all.
Yoweni snatched a floating cross in the middle 25 yards out, as
Sutiono misjudged the ball. He dribbled straight in and showed impressive touch in a perfect low lob over
Ferminus's head, well under the bar and well over his half-hearted attempt to jump for it. Nothing he could have done. 1-1, and we're even again. It's Yoweni's fourth goal of the year already, so we're hardly the first team he's victimized, but it was quite disheartening to have our lead last no more than a minute and a half.
24' --
Yogi was double-teamed and taken down, and it looks like he hurt something but can probably continue. The last think we need is for him to get injured again ...
27' --
Yoweni finds
Mansoben in front with a clear blast from about 13 yards, but it's right at
Ferminus. They're controlling possession almost completely, and I'm thinking seriously about going to defensive mode to try and hold them down. If we had our fifth defender available, I'd put them in but with
Patay injured we don't have that option.
29' --
Kasipmabin floats in a great freekick from almost midfield, and
Oropka heads it home inside the box at the right post! But it's disallowed, they say he pushed one of the defenders to get free! That was
Pigay, the same guy who took out
Yogi's legs a few minutes ago.
I hate him. Oh, how I hate him. But judging from the reaction of the players who were closer to the play, it's probably an accurate call. Still, I thought we were back in front, and it was one heck of a kick and finish anyway. Blast!
33' --
Yogi loops one to
Ewangin over the middle, who had gotten a couple steps inside his defender. Their keeper came out, but couldn't cut down the angle fast enough and the ball zipped inside the left post! A second assist for Yogi, a second score for Ewangin, and we're back in front
2-1!! What a game this has been already!!!
39' --
Tebay, who assisted on their first goal, loops in a deep cross to
Mansoben who is behind our defense. He puts a soft header beautifully over our keeper, and we're dead-even again!! That time it was
Fitriandi defending, and he didn't react nearly quickly enough. We had two guys right on Tebay though and he put that pass right on the money, an incredible play. Gotta be impressed with that, and it's
2-2.
44' -- A nice passing play from
Oropka to
Sutanto to
Yogi sets up a fairly close shot, but it's an awfully sharp angle and into the side of the net.
HT -- Still
2-2, they've controlled possession, beat us soundly in the air, but the individual skills of
Ewangin and
Yogi have us right there with them. For now. It feels like the other shoe is about to drop, especially with Yogi laboring -- we might be able to get about 10-15 min. more out of him but that'll be it, and if we aren't back in front by then it'll be very hard to save the match.
I try to fire the guys up by being enthusiastic about what they've done so far, it has been excellent after all. They seemed to respond well for the most part, we'll see if we can keep pushing in the conclusion here. With just nine combined shots for the game, the finishers on both sides have been really outstanding.
49' --
Ewangin gets a crack from 22 yards out, tries to go up high but needed some angle on that,
Pakage jumps and snares it easily.
56' -- Time to pull
Yogi.
Setia will come on at MR, giving us
Oropka,
Sutanto, and
Ewangin up front. I hope to heck Yogi's ... whatever it is ... isn't serious.
59' -- They make another sub after missing a long free kick, then a try by
Mansoben is blocked,
Yoweni gets in a good try at an angle volley but
Ferminus is equal to the task.
Still another half-hour to go. I'm not sure we can hold them.
62' --
Pigay takes down
Setia, no doubt trying to intimidate the young keeper playing vastly out of position. He's shown a yellow card -- couldn't happen to a better guy.
63' --
Yoweni takes a pass down the right side, somehow finds a trailing midfielder who blasts one from 15 yards, just over the upper right corner of the net cage. That was a dangerous looking and impressive play, I'm pleased they didn't convert.
64' -- Some nice touch passes between
Sutanto and
Oropkadown at the other end, a ball is fed ahead for
Ewangin to run onto ... but their defender slides and tackles the ball away at the last second. Almost had something going there.
69' -- A good-looking rush but their defense does just enough to prevent us from getting a shot off, had a couple of near-attempts from about 18 yards straight on before they intervened.
70' -- The perenially-aggressive
Yarangga picks up a yellow for us. I'm forced to tell him to back off, the last thing we need is to get someone sent off at the end of this match.
With nobody seeming to have much of an advantadge at the moment, I decide to stick with our approach the rest of the way. They are tiring and I think we had good chances to hold the draw.
75' -- A long freekick by
Kasipmabin is nearly a fluke goal, instead resulting in an eventless corner.
77' -- They are called for offside on what would otherwhise have been a sure goal. Swallowed my throat there for a sec.
79' -- A bad header gifts them a corner, which with their aerial ability is no small cause for concern.
Ferminus manages to punch the ball out though.
82' -- A collision at midfield(
Sutanto and two Persinab defenders) typified the finish to this game. It left all three players on the ground, dazed for a moment, but the match continued, no foul called. Good hustle on both sides, some great individual efforts and a lot of physical play, leading up to not much of anything.
87' --
Ewangin pushes down the left side of the area, trying to bait the keeper his way before lofting a cross over to
Sutanto. It was a good idea, but didn't come close to working as
Pakage didn't fully commit and easily retreated to grab the slow pass.
90' --
Fitrandi gets back just in time to block a try by
Yoweni out, and the corner is caught by
Ferminus. Looks like that was the last chance.
92' -- Or not. They get
Tebay a look inside the area and
Ferminus just manages to turn it aside. Another corner for them and I can barely watch ...
Urwan gets there first at the far post ... they head it back towards the goal ... and we finally clear it. Phew!
93' -- Another corner. Would this match just end already?
Tebay hits it ...
Urwan is there again ... and it's finally over.
FT --
2-2, a heart-stopping draw, and one we were on the short end of a bit so I'll take it.
Top honors went to
Engel Ewangin for his two goals, with
Yogi's pair of assists contributing to a solid day for him. He was determined to be fine after the match, which was a great relief.
Including the last two matches of the previous year(not my fault of course), we have set a new club record: six without a win. There are rumblings in the press about how this year is going to be a disappointment if we don't get victories soon. They're not wrong, but it's not time to panic five matches in. We have three more this month and are gradually getting healthier all the time. With two of them at home, if we haven't pulled out a win by then, we can start panicking at that point with my blessing
