ASEAN Cup Diary: Day 4
Can we potentially find any other underdogs from the second matchday of Group B?
Group A continued to not disappoint its followers after two matches that provided plenty of dramas and events that will be discussed long after the second matchday. While it was pretty much the same story as the first day where the favourites continued to earn points for their semi-final ambitions, can we say the same about the second day of Group B? Let’s find out!
Philippines 1-1 Myanmar
Philippines have a similar situation as Indonesia since they were not able to call up their best players, which include the likes of Neil Etheridge, Gerrit Holtmann, or Kevin Ingreso. However, they still have plenty of players that can turn them into a genuine contender for a semi-final spot like defender Michael Kempter, midfielders Oskari Kekkonen, Michael Baldisimo, Sandro Reyes, and striker Bjørn Martin Kristensen, most of whom are based in either Europe or North America. They have also brought a lot of young players with relatively little experience with the first team, so this would be the first genuine test for them. Meanwhile, I still do not know anything about Myanmar football so I will continue to refrain from making judgements.
There seemed to be an intention to play out from the back from the Philippines using their back four and the holding midfielder (#19) Kekkonen, which probably did not come as a surprise when their coach, Alberto Capellas, used to be a Barcelona youth coach and having worked as an assistant at Borussia Dortmund and as a manager of FC Midtjylland. A lot of short passes at the back, with Kekkonen moving side-to-side to create passing triangles with the nearest centre-back and full-back. Occasionally, one of the central midfielders in (#6) Reyes and (#17) Zico Bailey would also drop deep to receive the ball. And I blame Pep Guardiola for this…no, I’m just kidding!
Myanmar tried to react to that by going man-to-man with the Philippines and remained as aggressive as they were against Indonesia. To an extent, that did work because the host could not progress the ball through the middle third on most occasions inside the first 15 minutes or so. But the drawback of that was they also committed quite a lot of fouls. The Philippines have also found a loophole where they could get into the final third and created chances, which was through long passes in behind for right winger (#21) Alex Monis to run. The host have got quite close to a goal through Bailey and striker (#10) Kristensen on a few occasions, but they needed a bit more luck to get the ball into the goal. And, seemingly, when the Philippines were struggling to find a goal, Myanmar found the opening goal through a direct free-kick!
Reyes, Bailey, and Monis have impressed me so far, and for the same reason. They both looked very good technically and have the skills to control the ball in tight spaces, so much so that Myanmar needed two or three players going in aggressively to take them off the ball, and sometimes they would come off those challenges earning a free-kick. If the Philippines go far in this year’s tournament, those three would be on my list of players to watch.
I would argue that the Philippines were quite unlucky not to score a goal in the first half. They had the quality and they played good football…at times. Their midfielders were doing a lot, especially Bailey and Monis, but they just could not beat Myanmar’s keeper on a day where he was having a performance of his life. It would have helped them a bit more if they could get Kristensen into play more often because he looked quite isolated and lost inside of the final third. The Norwegian-born striker just could not be found and the midfielders were left in situations where they had to do things by themselves.
While Myanmar did not have a lot of chances to attack, they managed to find the breakthrough with through balls in behind the Philippines’ defence. As they played with a high defensive line, they constantly left themselves exposed to runs in behind and goalkeeper (#1) Patrick Deyto had to come to the rescue on quite a few occasions. They also survived a scare when Myanmar had a goal disallowed due to offside at the 65th minute, which would have killed off the momentum that they had inside the second half.
And it was Reyes who played the decisive through ball to send Kristensen through, before a good individual effort by Monis, that led to the striker brought down by Myanmar’s goalkeeper. It took a while, but their attacking efforts finally paid off and pulled them back into the match. However, they still lacked that clinicality inside of the final third as a lot of their chances went wide or did not hit the target.
Summary
It was an unlucky night for the Philippines as they were slightly better than Myanmar whenever they had the ball. I was really impressed with how they played out from the back and the ability to know where each player needed to be and who they needed to pass to. Probably on another day where they were a bit more clinical with their chances, they would have come away with all three points and more than two goals. For Myanmar, they got their first point on the board after failing to leave Indonesia with anything in hands. They were decent, but I was just not that impressed with how they used fouls to disrupt the Philippines’ play for quite a few times. But hey, whatever it takes to get a result, I guess.
Indonesia 3-3 Laos
In theory, this should be an easy match for Indonesia considering their superiority in player quality, even though they brought with them a squad that is made up off mostly domestic talents. But Laos have shown in the first half against Vietnam that they were not an opponent that could be pushed over easily. Whether they could keep that performance up against Indonesia was another thing, but if they could, there could be a chance for a major upset in Group B.
Twenty minutes in and we already have four goals on the scoresheet. Capitalised on a mistake in Indonesia’s midfield, Laos created a fast break where (#19) Phousomboun Panyavong’s shot got deflected off of Indonesia’s centre-back (#5) Kakang Rudianto and went out of (#22) Daffa Fasya’s reach. Just three minutes later, off of a classic (#12) Pratama Arhan’s long throw, Indonesia got the ball and it got passed to another centre-back in (#4) Kadek Arel, who tucked it into the back of the net. Literally one minute later, Kadek Arel made an individual mistake after he scored and allowed Laos’ other winger (#10) Phathana Phommathep to steal the ball and retake the lead for the away side. But nooo, the drama did not end there. Five minutes later, from another Arhan’s long throw, the ball somehow found the head of captain (#13) Muhammad Ferrari and went into the back of the net.
Twenty minutes. Four goals, equally divided for both teams. Indonesia’s two goals came from two Rory Delap-esque throw-in situations by Arhan. Madness. Are you not entertained?
I could not even observe anything tactical here because it had been such an end-to-end clash. Indonesia created a couple of chances, then it was Laos’ turn to then create a decent goal-scoring chance. At this point, I was already sitting back, relax, and embrace the chaos that is ASEAN football. Let’s go.
Now that things have calmed down quite a bit, it gave me the first chance to reflect on some of the observations that I have seen from the match. Firstly, Laos were quite good with their counter-attacks. Every time they tried to play the ball over the top, one of their wingers was able to bring the ball down, then took on one of Indonesia’s centre-backs, and drove it down into the box. As it is the theme of the tournament, Laos also lacked a bit of composure when creating their chances. It felt a bit rush whenever they took a shot, even though those shots posed quite a bit of threat in it when it reached Fasya’s goal. If they could slow down a bit and took their chances properly, they would have gotten another goal or two.
Secondly, Indonesia did not look that impressive to me. Without a lot of their key players, they had to rely very heavily on individuals to create goal-scoring chances. A lot of passes were played towards (#7) Marselino Ferdinan as if he was the centre of their attack, which he kinda was. Most of the team looked to him and (#10) Rafael Struick to create something, but the problem was Marselino got marked quite tightly and Struick just looked very tired, so they could not bring anything substantial to the table. Midfielder (#8) Arkhan Fikri was someone who I highlighted from Indonesia’s last match, but he did not leave anything noticeable after 60 minutes.
Thirdly, you just have to bring up Arhan’s long throws. It felt like a cheat code, because whenever Indonesia had a long throw within the vicinity of the final third, you would just rely on Arhan throwing a rocket into the box and hoped for a scramble where one of Indonesian players would bring the ball down for a subsequent shot. When you do not have any plans or when you are an underdog, those kind of long throws work. But when you are Indonesia who brings a very young team, this reliance felt a bit unimpressive for me because this could have been a platform for domestic youngsters to show what they can do and fight for a chance to play with top, European-quality players. Yet, so far, Indonesia just looked like a squad that has its core being ripped out, and that core is their European-based players.
You could really sense that frustration and tiredness in those core players, which got highlighted through Marselino’s red card at the 68th minute. Marselino went in with an unnecessary challenge, a rough one at that, and got nowhere near the ball. Then he looked at the referee, tried to justify his reasons, but he also looked very frustrated and a bit tired. That is probably enough to tell you how the entire squad felt at that time of the match. Even Shin Tae-yong’s expression, after Ferrari’s second goal and Indonesia’s third goal at the 73rd minute, tells you that he was just relief that they finally got a goal and took the lead. By the way, that was Indonesia’s third set-piece goal of the night, also their third that came from an Arhan's throw-in in their two matches, and a fourth set-piece goal over those same two matches.
Laos totally fought back in order to get the result that they deserved, and they did get what they deserved. Another counter-attack, which led to a moment where the Indonesian defenders lost concentration and allowed one of Laos players to dribble into the box. While there could be a debate about whether the ball had gone past the byline or not, it did not matter because (#23) Peeter Phanthavong was able to get to the end of the low cross and scored the equaliser for the away side.
The match finally turned into the regional quality that I know and…hate. Challenges and fouls being thrown left and right, with Indonesia getting more and more frustrated and annoyed, and Laos players wasted time. The fact that Ferrari rushed Laos’ medical staff out of the field as quick as possible for them to resume the play also adds to the “Indonesia was frustrated” compilation that I have been collecting. It was a frustrating match, but it was also a match where Indonesia did not deserve that much anyway. Yes, it might be an unpopular opinion, but Laos was just better and did not have to rely too much on set pieces to score goals.
Summary
Chaotic. Madness. Frustration. Everything wrapped up in a single match. The first twenty minutes highlighted the chaotic and madness nature of ASEAN football. Anything can happen in Southeast Asian football, and I mean anything. Ridiculous long throws, scrambles, counter-attacks, and four goals divided evenly between the two teams. Then came a long period of frustration, where Indonesia tried to find a goal, and which they did through their captain Muhammad Ferrari. But a lack of concentration threw their efforts away and allowed Laos to get the equaliser that they thoroughly deserved. A rough match for the home side, but a success for the away side, and an entertainment feast for the fans. That was Indonesia vs Laos.
In significant contrast to the first day, the second day of Group B brought lots and lots of dramas and excitement. The day started off with the Philippines playing good football and treating the eyes of their fans to very attractive passing sequences, only to be thrown off by a free kick from Myanmar. While they lacked a bit of precision and clinicality in front of goal, they still found the equaliser through a penalty and wrapped up their first match of the tournament with a point.
Then, Indonesia and Laos continued to treat the neutrals with four goals in the first twenty minutes, including two ridiculous, Rory Delap-esque throw-ins from Pratama Arhan. Drama came through the rest of the match as Indonesia found themselves a man down but then scored what they thought was the winning goal around the 70th minute, which Laos then immediately answered “no” by scoring their own equaliser just minutes after that through making the most of a situation where a few Indonesian defenders lacked concentration. One point earned for each, but Laos will feel like they come away with a huge upset.
The tournament will enter another one-day break before returning with some feisty clashes between the favourites and the underdogs from each group. Until then, signing off!