Steven Danis
Football Tribe Indonesia
After the Lebaran holiday week and International Matchday, Liga 1 makes a comeback after their latest game a month ago. Started on Friday, Bali United continued their perfect record and successfully replaced Madura United from the top of the 2019 Liga 1 table.
Interestingly, the actual schedules on the Liga 1 website referred to this round as the 5th gameweek, as all the games in 4th gameweek were canceled due to the scheduling clash with the FIFA international match days. But to keep this “Liga 1 Weeky Notes” chronological, we will keep the title as “Notes From Week 4”.
Before the gameweek started, finally two matches were held which were postponed from before. One of them was the match from Week 2 between Persib Bandung and PS TIRA Persikabo that ended draw 1-1 and ended both teams’ clean sheet record in the league. Additionally, the Persebaya Surabaya vs Madura United game in the quarter-final of Piala Indonesia was also held two months after it was originally scheduled.
In the opening day in this gameweek the controversial team, Badak Lampung FC, earned their second win of the season away against Semen Padang FC. The guest from Lampung took the lead by a goal from Abduh Lestaluhu in the 26th minute, but the lead was canceled out by Muhammad Rifqy seven minutes later.
Badak Lampung forward Fransisco Torres scored the winning goal at the second half and uniquely it happened in the same day as his famous Spanish namesake, Fernando Torres, retired from football after playing for J1 side Sagan Tosu this year. Elsewhere, PSS Sleman played out a 1-1 against 2017 champions Bhayangkara FC.
The next day saw the Kalimantan Derby held in the 17th of May stadium, where guests Kalteng Putra successfully stole three points from Barito Putra after a goalless first half. The home side leading led first but their Korean goalkeeper, Yoo Jae Hoon, made a big mistake which allowed Diogo Campos to equalize before captain I Gede Sukadana scored the winning goal in the 76th minutes.
But the good result of Kalteng Putra couldn’t be replicated by other away team, Persija Jakarta, during their trip to face Persela Lamongan which ended goalless.
Bali United emerged as league leaders with their 1-0 home win over PSIS Semarang, with the game’s only goal being scored by Ilija Spasojevic at the 70th minutes.
Bali United must thank Persib Bandung, who managed to hold Madura United to a draw in their match on Sunday. Both sides needed to wait until the final ten minutes to score, with Asep Berlian’s foul to Ezechial N’Douassel leading to a penalty which the Chad international scored. However, Bandung’s lead was canceled out when Zulfiandi leveled the scoring 10 minutes later. In another game, Persebaya finally got their first win of the season against Borneo FC, while PS TIRA Persikabo earned three points from Persipura Jayapura, both by 2-1 scorelines.
Relegation Zone Heating Up
While the top three of Bali, Madura and TIRA are all separated, the situation below even more interesting. There were five teams who still haven’t registered wins. Four of them are on two points while Barito Putera, who drew against Persija in the first game week, lost their other three matches.
This is a warning for two Brazilian coaches, Jacksen F. Tiago of Barito Putera and Luciano Leandro from Persipura Jayapura. With the players available to them, both will be disappointed of being in the relegation zone. The games between Persipura Jayapura and Semen Padang on Friday (28/6) and PSIS Semarang and Barito Putera on Sunday (30/3) will be the judgment day for both teams.
This week I have already seen the supporters invade the pitch, first with the fans of Persebaya in the Piala Indonesia quarter-final, and also during the game in Lamongan.
So which coach will be next to leave fired Ivan Kolev got fired from Persija? Will there be any managerial changes before we heading into the next gameweek this weekend? The capital city club have replaced Kolev with Julio Banuelos, the ex-Leeds United assistant manager, who now takes command from the bench.