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DECEMBER REVIEW
Ewangin(Tactics) and Kasipmabin(Attacking) showed good progress with no training negatives. I'll take that. Oropka's should-have-been-winner against Persebangga is named third choice for goal of the month.
We continue to lose money hand-over-fist(305M), the board is up to 'satisfied' with the 4-0 win over Persip the biggest positive, the loss of Uropmabin the biggest negative.
I think I've done enough to earn a contract through at least the end of the year, and I discuss said concept with the board. They flatly refuse. Well, I'm as committed to them as they are to me(i.e., not very). If a decent opportunity comes up ...
STANDINGS
Persibom(21 pts, +12)
Perssin(20 pts, +12)
Persigubin(17 pts, +13)
Persipon(15 pts, +8)
Jakarta Timur(15 pts, +1)
Persisko(12 pts, +4)
PSKT(12 pts, -2)
Persebangga(10 pts, +3)
Yahukimo FC(4 pts, -11)
Persip(4 pts, -13)
Persenga(3 pts, -14)
Persemalra(1 pt, -13)
We ended every weekend tied for the lead or better through six games, but the last two have been less kind with the draw against Persebangga and loss to Persibom dropping us down to third(though we're still first on goal differential). I really think we're good enough to fight for one of the two Second Phase spots with the top clubs, but we're in a hole now and will have to stop giving up injury-time equalizers. Without the two we surrendered, we'd be first on goal differential right now even with the loss.
No question we're at least good enough to be a top-half team, and that would be a wildly successful year by any objective measure. But after the way we stormed out of the gate(5 wins in six tries) I'll be disappointed if we don't make a push to catch the top teams. We've got three quality foes(Persipon, Perssin, and PSKT), two of them on the road, coming up in December. How we fare in those contests will tell me a lot about how we handle adversity, and whether we really have any kind of shot at fighting for Second Phase/promotion.
AFF CHAMPIONSHIP 2014
Indonesia got off to a good start, with wins over Myanmar(3-0) and East Timor(1-0). After a 3-1 defeat to Malaysia and a 2-1 win over Laos, they needed just a draw against Singapore to qualify for the semifinals. Instead it was a 2-0 defeat as they couldn't finish off a few quality opportunities, and Singapore/Malysia qualified out of their group, Malaysia only on head-to-head as both had identical records and differential.
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