Liga 1 Indonesia side Persija Jakarta wrapped up their pre-season preparations by beating Thai League 1 outfit Ratchaburi FC 1-0 at the Patriot Candrabhaga Stadium in Bekasi on Sunday night. However, the friendly match was much more remembered for the farcical scenes that happened after the 15th minute mark, when the lights at the stadium went out for an extended period of time.
With both Persija and Ratchaburi being evenly matched in the opening stages of their friendly, the floodlights inside the Patriot suddenly went out, prompting the referee to pause the game indefinitely.
After an excruciating wait of more than an hour and with the electricity inside the Patriot in a very poor condition, the referee called Persija captain Andritany Ardhiyasa and his Ratchaburi counterpart Jakkaphan Kaewprom, informing the two that the match could no longer be continued.
However, after much negotiation and with the urging of the Jakmania spectating the game from the stands, the game was finally resumed after the lights inside the stadium were restored, albeit in a dim condition.
It was later discovered that the cause of the outage was the Patriot’s power supply being unable to support the new floodlights that the stadium’s management had installed in preparation for the upcoming 2023/24 Liga 1 Indonesia season, with both Bhayangkara FC and Persija electing to use the Patriot as their home stadium for the season (albeit with Persija registering the Patriot Candrabhaga as their back-up should their Gelora Bung Karno Stadium is unavailable).
With the match resumed way behind its intended schedule, both Aji Kusuma and Ryo Matsumura came close in giving Persija the lead, before Sittichok Kanoo squandered an excellent Alvin Fortes ball in the 32nd minute.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 58th minute. Former BG Pathum United man Ryo managed to weave his way into the Ratchaburi defense, before laying the ball off towards Riko Simanjuntak, with the winger slamming home a shot that left Kampol Pathomakkakul in the Ratchaburi goal utterly beaten.
Persija then introduced Marko Simic into the fray in the 69th minute, and despite the Ratchaburi defenders managing to thwart his efforts, the Croat had seamlessly integrated himself into Thomas Doll’s squad on his return to the Macan Kemayoran. Simic’s teamwork with youngster Rayhan Hannan in the 83rd minute almost doubled Persija’s lead, only for Simic’s header to strike the goalpost.
Persija will open their Liga 1 campaign hosting defending champions PSM Makassar at the Gelora Bung Karno on July 2nd.