CERES-NEGROS FC must be scratching their heads right now why they allowed Yangon United FC to score two scrappy goals at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod last Wednesday evening.
The match ended 4-2 in favor of the home team, but Yangon headed home with those two crucial away goals.
The busmen looked as though they would have wrapped up the Zonal Semi-Finals in the first leg when they scored three brilliant unanswered goals all in the first half, two courtesy of Bienveido Marañon (29’ and 44’) and Patrick Reichelt (33’).
And then Yangon Sekou Sylla brought his team back to life with some fancy footwork inside the box in the 55th minute, no thanks to poor defending from Carli de Murga.
Off a corner, defender Manuel Lopez restored Ceres’ three-goal lead in the 63rd minute with a majestic header from a difficult angle, and the busmen seemed to cruise contentedly, until disaster struck again inside in the 83rd minute.
Following a seemingly benign play from Yangon, confusion ensued inside the Ceres box for a good 12 seconds as defenders failed to clear the ball, until the poaching Sylla finally snared another valuable goal for the visitors.
If one just looked at the game statistics, Ceres was dominant in terms of possession (61%), and made 22 shots, 12 of which were on target. In contrast, Yangon made 13 attempts, with six on target.
And at least from the livestream I was viewing, Ceres seemed headed for an easy win, until Yangon decided that the only way for them to have any chance was to play dirty.
I saw forward Sylla clip Ceres midfielders on a breakaway a number of times. Stephan Schröck also took a nasty elbow from a defender along the sideline.
While the referee seemed to have swallowed his whistle on several occasions, now vicious Yangon racked up 18 fouls and four yellow cards, twice as much as what Ceres committed, but the visitors’ gamble paid off.
Yangon only needs to score two goals and blank the defending champions in the next leg in Myanmar this Wednesday to advance to the Asean Zonal finals. On the other hand, Ceres can’t be confident with a two-goal advantage against Yangon, which was unbeaten at the Thuwanna YTC Stadium in the group stage.
Yangon’s home stadium might not attract the biggest crowds, but playing in their own turf should make the club twice as difficult, twice as vicious, and twice as determined in the second leg. That alone should be a cause of concern for Ceres.
If Ceres doesn’t collapse in the second leg, it would meet either Home United or Persija Jakarta. Home defeated the Indonesian visitors last Tuesday 3-2, and if the Singaporean club survives the return leg in a stadium that draws as many as 60,000 Indonesian spectators, we might see a rematch of the 2017 Asean Zonal Finals that Ceres won by a hair’s breadth.
Of course, we also know which club Ceres would prefer to face. For the meantime, there’s business to deal with in Myanmar next week. Ceres has less than a week to fix its creaking defense.