{"id":17193,"date":"2019-04-04T16:13:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T07:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=17193"},"modified":"2019-04-04T16:13:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T07:13:52","slug":"unlucky-trip-to-the-philippines-for-persija","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2019\/04\/04\/unlucky-trip-to-the-philippines-for-persija\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlucky Trip to the Philippines For Persija"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Steven Danis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Football Tribe Indonesia<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Persija Jakarta had faced away matches in a row in 2019 AFC Cup group stage. After successfully conquering the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon, the Macan Kemayoran flew for a total of 3,500 kilometers over 12 hours to arrive at the Paanad Stadium to face Ceres Negros of the Philippines. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hoping to mitigate the effects of fatigue, Persija\u2019s squad arrived in the Philippines on Saturday evening and trained in Ceres-Negros FC training facility in Talisay City on Sunday. Several players were unable to join the team, including naturalized striker Silvio Escobar and defensive midfielder Septinus Alua.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was a surprise in Persija\u2019s starting eleven when their living legend, Bambang Pamungkas, started as a center forward with Heri Susanto and Riko Simanjuntak on either flank. Meanwhile, the hosts relied on Bienvenido Maranon. The Spanish striker already netted 4 goals and become one of the tournament\u2019s top-scorers along with Baha Faisal (Al-Wehdat), Ganiyu Oseni (Hanoi FC) and Eero Markkanen (PSM Makassar).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A victory for Persija would allow them to climb to the top, while another victory for the hosts in front of their supporters would ensure that\u00a0The Busmen established their spot as the group leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the first whistle, Ceres initiated their attack with several chances from deep crosses into Persija\u2019s defensive line. Steven Paulle and Maman Abdurahman looked unable to handle the pressure, and Ceres broke through after just 11 minutes courtesy of a goal from Bienvenido Maranon. His fifth goal of the competition came from a \u00a0header after receiving a beautiful cross from Martin Steuble on the left flank.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Six minutes later, Macan Kemayoran got a chance of their own from a free kick. Ismed Sofyan\u2019s strike went wide of the far post, which was unlucky for his \u2018soul-mate\u2019 Bambang Pamungkas who couldn\u2019t head the ball towards Ceres\u2019 net, which guarded by veteran goalkeeper Roland Mueller.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ceres continued to play with a high press. Alvaro Silva and his colleagues in Ceres\u2019 defensive line managed to lock up striker Bruno Matos. Macan Kemayoran were trapped, as they could only send long passes from the back line which were effective at finding Riko\u2019s or Heri\u2019s feet. As such, the hosts went into the break ahead. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the second half, Persija slowly began to find their rhythm and dared to attack more from the left side with Danny Saputra and Heri Susanto. On the 61st minute, Bruno Matos had a chance from the right flank, but unfortunately, the Brazilian playmaker couldn\u2019t find the net even after successfully bypassing the defenders and goalkeeper. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, Persija\u2019s defense also looked strong with the Sandy Sute and Ryuji Utomo, who came on for the last 15 minutes. Goalkeeper Andritany also made a super save to keep his side in the game. However, the final whistle blew before the visitors could make the pressure count. Ceres sealed a precious win and their place atop the group, while Persija returned from an unlucky trip to the Philippines with nothing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Macan Kemayoran has a chance to get their revenge during the next matchday. The Busmen now must visit \u2018their hell\u2019 in the Gelora Bung Karno stadium on the 23rd of April. Let\u2019s see what Maranon and company can do in front of almost 75.000 Jakmania fans. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steven Danis Football Tribe Indonesia &nbsp; Persija Jakarta had faced away matches in a row in 2019 AFC Cup group stage. After successfully conquering the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon, the Macan Kemayoran flew for a total of 3,500 kilometers over 12 hours to arrive at the Paanad Stadium to face Ceres Negros of the Philippines. Hoping to mitigate the effects of fatigue, Persija\u2019s squad arrived in the Philippines on Saturday evening and trained in Ceres-Negros FC training facility in Talisay City on Sunday. Several players were unable to join the team, including naturalized striker Silvio Escobar and defensive midfielder Septinus Alua. There was a surprise in Persija\u2019s starting eleven when &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2019\/04\/04\/unlucky-trip-to-the-philippines-for-persija\/\" class=\"tribe-more-link\">Continue reading &#8220;Unlucky Trip to the Philippines For Persija&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":17194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indonesia","category-southeast-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}