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3.7 vs. Yahukimo FC(8-4-5, 3rd) A string of four straight wins from December and January propelled Yahukimo into a tie with Persinab for the second qualification spot, but they've since lost two of three including a 1-0 home defeat to Persipon last time out. Still, their form is much better than ours and you can add desperation to it now with only five matches left. They are 1-2 favorites to take us down today.
I tried to fire the team up and encourage them to get us out of this losing streak, which seemed to resonate at least with Yarangga.
9' -- After some back and forth play, good hustle from both clubs, Yogi to Ewangin who drew two defenders and slide the ball across to Uropmabin who was clear just outside the area, and our best long-shot threat buried it in the left side! 1-0 we take the early lead and we've looked fairly solid at the back, hopefully we can hold it this time against a dangerous foe.
11' -- After two immensely stupid turnovers, we are fortunate that an angled shot is blocked out for a corner by Ferminus.
14' -- They work it to Kotto, straight on from 17, high and wide left. If that play was any indication though, we'll be under a lot of pressure today.
27' -- Yogi looks for Ewangin, Harianto takes out his legs and they call a penalty!! Our first penalty chance of the season and an opportunity to add a critical goal to our tally. Yogi buries the try in the left corner, no chance to stop it and we're up 2-0!!
I tell the guys to pull back even more than our usual approach would dictate. We need to do anything we can to protect this lead.
33' -- Fitriandi leaves his man to cover a weakness out wide, not a wise choice as Kotto is open from no more than 10 out and fortunately his blast is right at Ferminus. We caught a break there and a narrow miss into the side on an angled header greets the second corner ... if this keeps up they're going to score eventually.
37' -- Mamoribo blasts a nice try from straight on outside the area, and Ferminus was able to tip it high. Big play by Ningmabin to clear out a low corner into traffic.
43' -- Decent look from about 25 for Ewangin is high and wide.
HT -- This sure looks like the match to break our streak, and I tell the team how pleased we are. Still, we're fortunate they haven't scored despite the fact that we've played very well.
48' -- Adie to Yogi who strikes a long blast on the volley ... missed but not by much.
51' -- After a couple corners, a long header by Yogi on a poor clearance is well wide.
We've increasingly been settling for long-range efforts as the year's gone on, so I decide it's time to start working on getting the ball into the box before we fire.
58' -- Samberoni gets behind the defense, a good tackle by Fitriandi takes away the ball ... and almost knocks it in for an own goal!
68' -- Sutanto on for Yogi, and Oropka on for Ewangin shortly thereafter. It's time to just go into full stall mode now.
93' -- Samberoni draws the defense and Alma places one perfectly inside the left post. Disappointing to give up a goal this late, but we're still up by one. 2-1
FT -- We hang on for a 2-1 win to break our skid, with Engel Ewangin earning player of the match with two assists. Unfortunately only three people saw it, although that's two more than have seen some of our matches this year.
The media is starting to comment on my job status, saying that the jury is still out and describing our results as 'good, if unspectacular' and stating my performance as 'steady'. Certainly could be worse. Maybe this will incite the board to get off their butt and make a decision -- or maybe the reason I don't have a new contract is that they already have ...
Persibas won as well so we're still up on them only on goal differential, and Persatu actually came through with their first win of the year, shocking second-place Persinab 3-2 on the road!! I can't fathom how that happened, they had one goal in their previous eight matches combined and then put up three on one of the league's best sides at their building?!? Even more incredibly, that was three goals in only five shots.
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