|
November 17 -- Assistant coach Bob informs me that Ferminus has been showing great progress and we now consider him to be a solid keeper for the level of competition we face here in the First Division. As we've conceded multiple goals in three straight matches, we'll need his work as the season rolls along.
November 22 -- A big blow for us as Ferminus fell and sprained an ankle during training. He's expected to miss 2 months. Roni Setia will get a chance to show his stuff, but he's not half the keeper Ferminus us at this point in his career.
November 23 @ Yakuhimo FC(2-1-3). Our recent play(unbeaten in our last four) has been noticed by the oddsmakers who have us down as 7-4 favorites on the road. Without Ferminus in goal though, we'll play conservatively here with the 5-3-1-1 and a counterattacking strategy. Our hosts have five players out and have lost 3 of 4.
2' -- Uropmabin is tripped right at the corner of the area, but his freekick is way off the mark.
5' -- Yogi gets a freekick from the left side, and Ningmabin ends up with a great header opportunity inside the box, but he misses it wide left. Just got too cute with it and took a bad angle. That's a good a scoring chance with a header as you can get, he just blew it.
8' -- Yogi trips up one of their midfielders and draws a yellow card. He rarely fouls, but this puts us in a tight spot. I decide to keep him on.
11' -- They get a header from about 13 yards, a weak effort that Setia grabs easily.
26' -- We blow another point-blank header as Yogi's cross is just a bit far for Ewangin right on the door step. He redirects it, but it's off the left post. The defense has been solid, but that's twice we've just missed inside the box.
29' -- A tough-angle try for Yogi is weak and into the side of the net. We seem to be taking more and more control as the match goes along.
32' -- Two-man game with Ewangin and Yogi ends up with Yogi taking one from 18 yards, it's deflected over by their keeper and they clear the corner without incident.
34' -- Ningmabin to Yogi who floats in another cross for Ewangin, he was almost in the net himself when he put this one home! We take the lead 1-0!! That time there was nothing whatsoever wrong with Yogi's cross, far post opposite the keeper and in between the defenders, great execution.
46' -- Just before the halftime whistle, Alma gets behind Fitriandi after a good lead pass and boots it past Setia from just outside the box. We're tied at 1, and we're making a darn depressing habit of giving up equalizers not long after we score.
HT -- 1-1. We've defended well for the most part only because of numbers, none of them are having a particularly good day back there. We've been a little better in the air, but with the two headers we missed, haven't been able to take full advantadge of it. We need a quick score to get back in front here.
What we got instead was a lot of back-and-forth action in the midfield, consistent turnovers both ways.
54' -- Roni Setia did something to himself on a routine clearance, but he'll be able to stay on. He's our only keeper right now, we're dead if something happens to him.
59' -- A wild sequence nearly cost us. Setia mishandled a cross, batting it up in the air. Fitrandi headed it off the line, but it ended up at the feet of Mamoribo who popped one over the bar from about 14 yards out on the right side. That could easily have been trouble.
61' -- Ningmabin floats in a cross that's just too far for Ewangin to get to. He was open, but couldn't get there.
63' -- Oropka in for Yogi as he's pretty beaten up following his latest collision. The yellow earlier also played into the call to pull him now, I don't need someone getting sent off due to a fatigue-prompted mistake. This is essentially an admission that we're playing to hold the draw now.
Before we can get him off, Kepno pulls the trigger on a blast from the left side of the area, thankfully missing it.
67' -- They get an extreme-angle try in the box, we block it out for a corner. Sutiono clears it out.
73' -- Sutanto is on for Uropmabin, our final sub and purely a fresh-legs move.
88' -- Ewangin leads Oropka into the area ... great chance at a one-on-one but the pass was just a hair too hard and their keeper got their first.
92' -- A completely idiotic deflection by their keeper Aziz hands us a free corner opportunity, but we get nothing out of it.
FT -- 1-1 draw. It was an evenly played match, but we should have stolen it. Blowing those two early headers cost us that opportunity. Engel Ewangin(our lone goal) was named player of the match, while aside from a solid game by Urwan, our defense had a bad outing all the way across.
Setia has a sprained wrist and will miss 2 weeks. That means we don't have a keeper for that duration, and we'll have to play conservatively, scrap and claw for anything we can get.
|