Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 80 - United Arab Emirates (1)

“On the eve of the event, this time we will broadcast the first match of the round of 40 of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, South Africa. Wednesday, 31 March 2008, 20:00 West Indonesia Time. Indonesia will play the United Arab Emirates at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium.”

“Here Hadi Gunawan and Bung Kusnaeni, will be the presenter and commentator who accompany you tonight.” Hadi Gunawan opened the show in front of National TV.

Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The first match of Group J round of 40 between Indonesia VS United Arab Emirates starts.

In this match, Frans changed the formation to 3-5-2 with 2 wings that can turn into a wing attacker or wing-back in accordance with the conditions on the field.

This formation reminds Raynaldi of Van Gaal when coaching the Dutch National Team, a 3-back formation with tight pressing to improve the ability to attack and cover the weaknesses of defenders.

The match started with a kick-off from the United Arab Emirates, their attacker Zayn Al-Mubarak starting the match.

The ball was controlled by the United Arab Emirates and they started to press slowly and set their own tempo. In keeping with the physicality of the west asian player who has strong confrontation ability as well as good enough speed, the United Arab Emirates began to organize attacks from the wings after successfully holding down the Indonesian midfield.

Fifteen minutes of the match. Their winger, Hassan managed to break through the right side of the Indonesian defense and send a cross into the penalty box. Zayn managed to respond and gore the ball towards the goal.

Luckily, Radgar managed to pull off the ball and Marco responded to send the ball far ahead.

Rangga managed to receive a pass Marco not far from the middle circle of the field. He turned around and saw Arnova starting to break through from the left. Rangga firmly sent a breakthrough pass on the left side of the field.

Arnova simply sped up and combed the left side of the field. As she approached the left side of the box, Arnova saw Aji and Raynaldi rushing into the box. He opens up space to feed and sends a hull pass into the penalty box.

Aji jumped up and responded, while the two United Arab Emirates centre-backs also jumped to scramble for the ball. Finally the ball was successfully gored by the United Arab Emirates defender and bounced out of the penalty box.

Raynaldi, who had previously seen both defenders jump together, decided to back off and hope to get the second ball. This time according to his expectations, because the opponent jumped in a hurry, the ball clearances are not well controlled.

Raynaldi who gets the ball sees the opponent's goalkeeper leaning more towards the left side of the goal. He firmly kicked the ball into the top right corner of the goal.

The ball sped and hit the inside of the goal post before bouncing hard into the goal.

“GOOOOOL! A hard kick from outside the penalty box! Raynaldi is back with the National Team! Scored the first goal with a hard kick outside the penalty box! Change temporary score to 1-0, for Indonesia's excellence!” Hadi Gunawan shouted a scene to welcome a goal from Raynaldi.

While the match started again with kick-off from the United Arab Emirates, the hard power of the United Arab Emirates is still better than Indonesia. However, they are more mature players mentally and age, compared to Indonesian players who have an average age of 23 years.

The match was again controlled by the United Arab Emirates, they made a short one-touch pass and began to press the Indonesian defense line. Both Indonesian wingers Arnova and Kurnia also retreated to full-back positions to defend. Temporary formation changed to 5-3-2.

“Actually there are no problems in the formation of Indonesia, and in my opinion this is a good development. Before we didn't have a lot of tactical literacy, most of our football tactics relied only on long balls to both sides of the field, which in my opinion was ineffective.” Bung Kusnaeni began to comment.

“The previous tactical change from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2 was quite interesting to me actually. We don't have a good full back so Frans as coach decided to eliminate Full back and change the formation to 3 centre-backs. He took some theories about Total Football and applied them in this formation.”

“In a simple practice where Total Football is a tactic where players are no longer tied to their positions and constantly change places to close existing hole positions. It may not be fully visible in the Indonesian formation now, but at least in the position taken both wings we show some aspects of it.” Pungkas Bung Kusnaeni's.

The game entered the 46th minute, Mario managed to seize the ball in front of the Indonesian penalty box. He saw Firman Huda whose position was not too far from him and passed the ball directly.

Word gets the ball and turns forward. He transferred the ball to the right side when he saw Kurnia coming from behind.

Kurnia who gets the ball continues to dribble quickly combing the right side of the field before being blocked by the opposing full-back. He looked at Rangga who was not far from him and returned the ball to the middle of the field.

Rangga who got the ball dribbling forward towards the opponent's penalty box when he saw the space in front of him empty unattended.

Rangga's action made the United Arab Emirates central defender spontaneously advance to block, making open space on the middle side of the penalty box. Rangga who saw this resolutely sent a breakthrough bait to an empty spot.

Raynaldi swiftly responded, he managed to get the ball before being confronted by the opposing goalkeeper who blocked his shooting angle. As Raynaldi intends to kick in forcefully, he sees Rangga back following after leaving the United Arab Emirates centre-back behind.

Raynaldi outwits the goalkeeper by sliding the ball to the right. The United Arab Emirates goalkeeper saw Raynaldi's actions and followed to lean his body to the right. However, Raynaldi's movements only intended to disappear the fulcrum of his body.

Raynaldi kicked the ball with the inside of his right foot, sending the ball back to the middle. Rangga who was chasing behind violently kicked the ball towards the empty goal. Change the match score to 2-0.

Along with the goal celebration of Rangga and his team-mates, the referee blew the whistle marking the end of the first half match.

“Truly an interesting match, two quick counter-attacks Indonesia managed to produce a goal. What do you think Bung Kus?” Ask Hadi Gunawan during the game break on the National TV station.

“I think this represents the biggest change from the formation and tactical system of the National Team. Previously we also played the same counter-attack and defense, but this time we showed a big change in our counter-attack.”

“First, we no longer use rough long ball and the accuracy rate is poor. But taking another route with the run and pass that is the basis of Total Football, and in my opinion this tactic is also very suitable to the physical condition and excess of Indonesian players that is their speed.”

“Secondly, this game also shows that Indonesia's playing style has changed. Previously Indonesia also had quite good strength in Asia and Southeast Asia but rarely managed to win the championship. The reason is simple, because the success rate of Indonesian bait is always low even only about 50% of successful bait. It also makes a lot of turn over which becomes a dangerous counterattack.” Pungkas Bung Kusnaeni's.

“So overall Indonesia has improved than the previous game against Turkmenistan?” Ask Hadi Gunawan.

“Iya, sure. And this is not only an increase in the strength of the player but also an increase in the tactical and system style of play.” Bung Kisnaeni replied confidently.