Dear Nico and Dale,
Below please find below the Match Report from Tuesday night.
Home Team: Wanderers
Date: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Place: ISCI
Time: 20:00
Goals Sabor Latino: Julico 1, Hernan 1
Goals Wanderers: Fandi Achmad 1
YELLOW CARDS SABOR LATINO: (3) Hernan, Alejandro, Pedro
YELLOW CARDS WANDERERS: (4) Saphou, Ebang, Michele, Thomas
MOM Sabor Latino: Cristian Gonzalez
MOM Wanderers: Jules Onana
REFEREE: Erwin. RATING: 10/10
On a perfect Jakarta eve weather, the highly expected match started with a slight delay of 10 minutes due to a complete mess of traffic in Lebak Bulus. It had rained hard since early in the morning which insinuated that the game could be canceled like many other matches in ISCI should the rain persisted throughout the afternoon. Fortunately, it didn’t and the ISCI pitch was in perfect playing conditions.
The Wanderers were wearing their new uniform, at least new for me since I had not seen them play this season yet. A very nice uniform indeed. Both teams were properly dressed and I personally liked Erwin’s initiative to have both teams line up before the game facing the tribune and showing our appreciation to the spectators that came to watch the game (not that many really) and then shake hands with the other team. It was a nice and refreshing change. Kudos to Erwin.
The game started and for the first 15 minutes the Wanderers attacked intensely and their condition of playing in their home pitch was latent. In those 15 minutes the Wanderers knocked on Sabor Latino’s goal 3 times with attempts from Fandi, Thomas and Claudio. After that, Sabor Latino settled down and found its game and started composing some compelling attacks but the Wanderers back-4 prevented any of the attempts from making it into the goal. Probably around the 30th minute, a nicely created play in the midfield of Sabor Latino and a crafty one-two between Julico and Hernan, allowed Julico to go into the area and score on Jules (0-1). Only 5 minutes after that, in a quick counter attack, Manny made a great pass to Fandi who shot with his left foot and scored on Sabor Latino (1-1). That marked the end of the first half.
The match resumed in the second half with pretty much the same script. Both teams had some opportunities that were saved either by the defenders or the goalkeepers. It seemed very likely that the match would end up in a draw. But with 10 minutes to go, Cristian Gonzalez dribbled on the left and executed a perfect center which found Hernan’s head in the middle of the area, an opportunity that Hernan did not waste, heading the ball into the net. The remainder of the match, saw the Wanderers trying to even the score but Sabor Latino was able to maintain the lead and the game ended.
From Sabor Latino and from a very personal perspective, the game was a very rewarding experience. Despite the rumors going around or maybe some expectations from some people on how the game was expected to go, it was comforting to see that the match was played on the basis of mutual respect, sportsmanship, the love for the game and friendship. The match was intense indeed however at no point there was any display of bad blood or bad intentions. I commend the Wanderers on a very strong team, especially the defense. A truly enjoyable match to play and to watch -I got a yellow card towards the end of the game so I did watch it for about 10 mins.
Pedro (Sabor Latino)
Itsgonnabereallyinterestingtoseewho’sgonnaendupthirdthisyear!!!!