Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 82 - United Arab Emirates (3)

The match continues with kick-off from Indonesia.

Raynaldi who received the kick-off ball immediately passed to Rangga who was behind him. Rangga who received the ball dribbled forward slowly.

Zayn tried to press and snatch the ball from Rangga, but Rangga defended the ball and passed the ball back.

Word receives the ball from Rangga and directly transfers the ball to the right directly. Kurnia received the ball without interruption and continued to break through the right side of the field.

Both the attacker and the United Arab Emirates winger are already interested in advancing to the Indonesian side of the field, making huge empty spaces on both sides of the pitch. Kurnia who got a pass from Firman easily exploited the right side of the field and rushed to the United Arab Emirates penalty box.

Full back United Arab Emirates advanced against the pace of Kurnia.

Looking at the opponent's full back position, Kurnia shifted the ball from his left foot towards the right, then with the inside of his right foot pushed the ball past both legs of the opponent. Relying on his speed and technique, Kurnia made it past the United Arab Emirates Full Back to get space to pass the ball.

Kurnia, who is on the right side of the penalty box, saw Raynaldi move between the two central defenders of the United Arab Emirates. He chose to send a cross into the penalty box.

The ball sent Kurnia, began to fall between the two central defenders of the United Arab Emirates. Raynaldi made use of his proper position to catch the ball and easily stopped it.

After looking at the position of the goalkeeper and the opponent's centre-back, Raynaldi moved the ball to his right foot and shot straight into the top right corner of the goal.

The ball soared past the ten fingers of the United Arab Emirates Goalkeeper and shot into the net with ease. The score again changed to 4-1 for Indonesia's excellence.

“GOOOOOAL! This time the United Arab Emirates fault that was too pressing forward was exploited by Kurnia to make a breakthrough on the right side of the field! Then he sent a perfect cross utilized Raynaldi to score his second goal in this match!” Hadi Gunawan is very excited now, the score on the field again changed 4-1 and the time showed 65 minutes had passed, Indonesia's victory was almost certain.

Frans and his staff on the sidelines also began to cheer happily. In this match, Indonesia who are still in the run-in process in personnel and tactics can get one point already meet their goals.

But the score before their eyes showed that they were still too conservative and they forgot that they had a goal-scoring machine that could even score 18 goals in 11 games in 2.Bundesliga. The player who can score an average of 1.5 goals per game is definitely not an ordinary striker.

After calming himself down, Frans immediately arranged a change of players. He firmly replaced Raynaldi and Rangga. Entering a Full back and Kurniawan simultaneously. Turning the formation into a 4-4-1-1 with Aji as the spearhead.

Kurniawan also relayed Frans' directives to his team-mates.

In 35 minutes this should last as well as possible. If necessary all players can be in the penalty box to defend and install the bus completely.

The entrance of Kurniawan behind Aji was intended as the focus of the first attack. Relying on his experience and skill to counter-attack after receiving the ball from behind.

The match resumed with kick-off from the United Arab Emirates.

. . . . .

“Good game Ray! Congratulations it looks like you will be the Man of The Match of this match!”

“You did a great game Rangga. Your passing is better than ever!”

Frans praised the two players he had just replaced. However they played well in this game and replaced them not because they made mistakes but because of tactical needs.

“Good, coach!” Raynaldi and Rangga answered politely. Then they both went to cool down.

The game continues. In the 78th minute, Zayn again got a one-on-one chance with Radgar. He tried to shoot into the far corner, but it was Radgar who had guessed it swiftly brushed the ball out of the box.

Marco who got the ball firmly threw the ball far forward to clear the ball.

In the 83rd minute, Indonesia got a chance to counterattack. Kurniawan who got the ball sent the plug straight through the United Arab Emirates defense line.

Unfortunately, Aji who faced one-on-one with the goalkeeper of the United Arab Emirates failed to take advantage of the opportunity. His ball was wide on the left side of the United Arab Emirates goal.

After the Indonesian counter-attack, the match was again controlled by the United Arab Emirates. They again bombarded the Indonesian defense with long-range fire, because they could not penetrate the Indonesian bus parking defense.

Finally in the 94th minute of added time, Hassan shot from outside the box which surprised the Indonesian players. Radgar who was caught off guard could only jump desperately, but unfortunately the ball still passed his ten fingers and broke his goal.

This goal was also the closing goal of this match, the last score 4-2 for Indonesia's victory.

. . . . .

Post-match press conference, press room Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Currently the coaches of both teams are answering questions from the reporters.

“Mr Diego, how do you comment on the results of this match?” A reporter asked United Arab Emirates Coach Diego Carlos.

“I don't know how to say it... But I am honestly disappointed with the result of this match..” Diego Carlos said slowly.

“We controlled the match and the rhythm of the match was also almost completely regulated by us... This can be seen from our ball possession rate which reaches 70% while the other party is only 30%... We also made more threats in this game with a total of 13 shots in the game... So to be honest I am very disappointed with this match.” Diego Carlos.

“How about you Mr Frans?” Another reporter asked Frans.

“First of all, I am very happy with the result we got in this match, and this result is very much in line with our performance on the field.” Frans opened the word.

“I know many of you who saw the match felt we played ugly... You guys must have thought that we could only defend and counterattack? But isn't the tactical development now like this? Coach Diego said he was disappointed with the result of this game, I would also feel the same if he was in his position.” Frans smiled slightly and sneered a little.

“Now I will also explain why we deserved to win in this match! First, we did a total of 8 shots with 6 shots on target and 4 of them were goals. This shows that we have better attacking efficiency than our opponents who shot 13 times but only 4 were on target and 2 scored

“Secondly, a football match is not a matter of who has the most balls but a matter of who scores the most goals. Even if we only made 1% possession, as long as we scored one more goal than our opponent. We will win the game, right?”

“Three, I know the trend of ball possession or tiki-taka is on the rise after treble winner Catalan United in Europe last year. But I also have to remind not all star-studded teams like them, right?”

“And lastly, our team was just formed in February and the players are still in the run-in process. So how much do you guys ask for?” Frans smiled and left the press room. As a person who had trained in England, Frans knew how crazy reporters and paparazzi were for the news. So just throw something that could be news to them and leave the place quietly.