Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 50 - Indonesia VS Turkmenistan

“GOOOOOOAAAL” faint cries heard from the south side of the stadium.

Raynaldi just broke the Turkmenistan goal when the match was only running 5 minutes. He received Rangga's long pass and deftly tricked the opposing defender, then kicked the ball into the top corner of the goal. The movement is very simple nothing fancy and make his goal look ‘bia’.

After joining the training for 2 days, Raynaldi quickly adapted to the team's tactics. The thing that makes it more quickly integrated is the presence of Rangga as a midfielder and regulator of the team's attack. Raynaldi was already familiar with him because they had played together in High School.

The match continued with a kick-off from Turkmenistan, they tried to pressure Indonesia to get an immediate goal. Left behind when the game has not even 5 minutes makes the Turkmenistan players attack in a hurry.

As a result in the 13th minute, in almost the same way. Rangga sent a long pass to the side of the almost empty Turkmenistan field. Raynaldi managed to respond quickly and again broke the Turkmenistan goal to change the score to 0-2.

The match was calm again when the second goal was created, the Indonesian National Team wanted to slow the tempo of the game to save energy and maintain the score advantage. While on the side of Turkmenistan also slowed the tempo to re-organize their defense.

In the 31st minute, a shot away the Turkmenistan attacking midfielder hit the inside of the post and changed the score to 1-2. After scoring they do not celebrate and immediately bring the ball back to the midpoint of the field.

Indonesia again took the initiative to attack, until the 38th minute when Firman sent the ball diagonally to the left to find Kurnia Cahya. After getting the ball, Kurnia passed the Turkmenistan right-back and intended to break into the box.

The Turkemnistan centre-back intends to push Kurnia into a small corner and exhaust his wiggle room. However, Kurnia managed to send a cross into the penalty box. Raynaldi intended to respond to a pass, but he saw another centre-back following him so he outwitted the defender and fired the ball.

Aji who followed Raynaldi from the side was in an unguarded position and immediately grabbed the ball. The Turkmenistan goalkeeper and centre-back who had been fooled by Raynaldi's movement could not respond and only let their wicket back concede. The score again changed to 1-3.

“Ray, I almost missed it.” Aji pulls Raynaldi to celebrate his goal.

“Are you not an attacker, either? You should always be ready for a ball like that.” Raynaldi responded to Aji's words with laughter.

The match again continued with an attack from Turkmenistan, but the ball was broken Firman Huda. After capturing the ball, Firman immediately made a long diagonal pass on the right side of Indonesia. Arnova responded to Firman's bait and used her speed to break through the left flank of the Turkmenistan defense.

At the same time, Raynaldi responded from the middle of the field and left the guard of the Turkmen centre-back. Arnova saw Raynaldi free immediately provide a breakthrough pass into the penalty box. The Turkmenistan goalkeeper tried to block Raynaldi's attack by advancing and closing the corner of his shot.

Raynaldi who saw the Turkmenistan Goalkeeper began to advance to close the corner calmly pushed the ball between his two wide-open legs. Raynaldi ran past the Turkmenistan goalkeeper and pushed the ball into the empty net turning the score into 1-4 before half-time was over.

When the goal happened the time had shown the 47th minute and the extra time of the first half was over. So after the referee blew the official goal-mark whistle he also blew the long whistle of the end-game mark.

. . . . .

Living room, Turkmen National Stadium.

“After what happened in the first half, I am sure the Turkmenistan team will rely more on their physical strength to fight us. The second half will be a game full of confrontation and fouls, also because this is the opponent's home, the referee will probably be softer on them without him knowing.” Frans began to explain what might have happened in the second half.

“So what we need to do in the second half is not to attack! But we're going to play a quick counter-attack, quick, all we need to do is utilize the speed of both our wings and send a long pass directly to the opposing area just like our last two goals in the first half and release possession on them.” Frans has coached many teams ranging from semi-professionals to professionals so he knows the style of playing small teams.

Turkemistan itself is also a small team in the world of international football, at least if you compare it with Indonesia which is now a small team. So rather than forcing a small team to go crazy by constantly attacking them, a quick counterattack is more effective and can ensure players are safer from injuries that may occur due to co-frontation on the field.

“This second branch we will defend fully and rely on quick counterattack.” Frans ordered his players.

. . . . .

The second half of the match started with a kick-off from Turkmenistan. Left behind 3 goals in the first half made them attack aggressively at the beginning of the second half. They want to reduce the goal difference as much as possible.

Turkmenistan's attacks were more direct and crude they used their merits in force and physical confrontations to push for Indonesia's defence.

In the 50th minute, the Turkmenistan winger sent a cross from the side. The Turkmenistan centre forward managed to respond to a pass with a header, unfortunately the direction of his header was too high and was outside the frame of the goal.

Turkmenistan continued to attack Indonesia, but did not succeed in ripping off the Indonesian defensive line. Meanwhile, almost all Indonesian players are in their own half of the field. Raynaldi himself is always in the center line of the field to prepare to counterattack.

In the 55th minute, Firman Huda managed to snatch the ball from the Turkmenistan midfielder and sent a long pass to the other side of the field. Raynaldi who was in the middle of the field immediately rushed to the other side of the field to receive Word's bait.

Raynaldi who directly faced the Turkmenistan Goalkeeper easily outwitted him and put the ball into the goal to try the score to 1-5. This was Raynaldi's 4th goal of the match.

After Raynaldi's goal, Frans decided to withdraw Aji Pamungkas and replace him with Kurniawan. “Ray, you will be the lone attacker. We'll play counter-attack like before, but remember hold your energy... If the feed position is not good do not need to be pursued.” Kurniawan informs Raynaldi of Frans' directives.

“Good.” Raynaldi agreed.

After that the game went a little boring, neither the Indonesian National Team nor Turkmenistan had any intention of attacking at all.

In the 90th minute, Rangga managed to snatch the ball and send a deep hull pass forward. Raynaldi responded well and left two Turkmenistan centre-backs far behind him. After getting the ball, he easily kicked the ball into the far corner and scored his fifth goal in the match.

The score changed to Turkmenistan 1 - 6 Indonesia.