Putra Delta Sidoarjo displayed ruthless performance in their Liga 3 Indonesia semifinal match on Sunday as they massacred Mataram Utama 6-1 at the Gelora Delta Stadium in Sidoarjo. Adam Malik scored a hat-trick as the Prajurit Candi Pari booked their maiden Liga 3 final ticket in some style, where they will face-off against Karo United in the showpiece match of this season’s Indonesian third tier on March 30th.
In the battle between two newly-established teams who managed to earn promotion to the Liga 2 Indonesia in their very first year of existence, East Java representative PDS went straight for the jugular early in the game. Taking Yogyakarta Special Region’s Mataram Utama’s defense by surprise, Aldy Satria managed to earn PDS the lead as early as the 5th minute.
Mataram Utama recovered well from that early setback and they managed to keep the scoreline respectable for the next 19 minutes, with Arizka Setpya Nurcahya doing well in between the Mataram Utama sticks to deny Wisal El-Burji his goal in the 10th minute before Adam struck the crossbar five minutes afterward.
However, Nurcahya was left reeling in the 24th minute after he had failed to clear an Adam shot far enough, with the ball going straight towards the attacker who made no mistake with his third attempt of the game.
Former Arema FC player Ferry Aman Saragih, acting as PDS captain for the match, tripled his team’s lead in the 30th minute before Muhammad Ridhwan pulled one back for Mataram Utama right at the stroke of half-time.
Things got bad to worse for Mataram Utama in the second half as PDS opened the floodgates once again, with Wisal finally finding his way past Nurcahya in the 65th minute before Adam scored twice in the 70th and 90th minute respectively, completing his hat-trick and ensuring PDS a spot in this season’s Liga 3 final.
In March 30th final, PDS will take on North Sumatra representative Karo United at the Gelora Delta, with the Laskar Simbisa having eliminated local rivals PSDS Deli Serdang in their own semifinal on March 26th.