Co-written by: John Rabelas
Right from the first whistle, it seemed like something is missing, something’s wrong, it felt like it was not the Ceres-Negros FC we’re used to watching.
The second leg encounter between the 2017 AFC Cup ASEAN Zonal champions Ceres Negros FC and four-time V.League winners Hanoi FC saw the other side of the busmen.
They were put on a lot of pressure by the home side and it seemed like they had a hard time keeping up with the speedsters of the purple yellows. Let’s look into the three reasons why Ceres-Negros FC were dealt with a semi-finals exit this season in the AFC Cup.
Back line miscommunication
The arrival of Alvaro Silva to the busmen’s garage gave a lot of people the impression of a strengthened defense for Ceres. As we all know, he’s coming of a stellar performance in the AFC Asian Cup where he’s the key man in defense all throughout the Azkals’ campaign in the tournament.
He’s been paired up with Super Herrera over the course of their campaign in the AFC Cup which proved to show the familiarity amongst the towering back line of the busmen.
However, last night didn’t seem to show that chemistry that we’ve seen before. The early stages of the match saw Roland Muller being threatened by attacks from the middle but they’re just getting away thanks to the poor finishing by the home team.
In the second half of the match, Hanoi FC exploited this defensive mishap when Nguyen Van Quyet broke the offside trap before passing it to Pape Omar Faye who opened the festivities for the hosts.
Five minutes after the opening goal, another defensive breakdown was punished by Hanoi FC, this time after Silva’s poor first touch which was then converted to a goal by Nguyen Van Quyet.
It’s quite evident as well that Martin Steuble lacked the leadership from the back as they were caught napping for most of the match. Was this a sign of overconfidence or just a poorly deviced game plan?
Lacking the firepower – and the flexibility
Ceres-Negros FC recorded a strong +9 in goal difference during the group stages where Bienvenido Marañon was in the running for the top-scorer of the tournament with eight goals that time.
Come the zonal semi-finals, the busmen didn’t pose much threat in attack after that 1-1 draw in the first leg. In the second leg, Hanoi FC deserve some credit in taming the goalscoring beast that is Marañon.
The 33-year old striker wasn’t able to see much of the ball in that encounter resulting to missing any goalscoring chances. With 11 minutes remaining in the match, Marañon was replaced by Curt Dizon who scored just six minutes from his introductions.
That goal proved to be the lifeline for the busmen but Hanoi FC had everything sorted out to prevent them from equalizing. It’s quite surprising to see the cannons of Ceres-Negros FC malfunctioned in the most pivotal moments.
It’s also quite surprising to see Ceres coach Risto Vidakovic not read the tea leaves and adjust his tactics in the middle of the action, specifically in continuing to target Marañon despite him being marked to near-impotence. Between that, his refusal to rejig the frontline until the seeming last minute, and a noticeable reticence to change their attacking set-up, was there a plan B?
Playing By the Whistle
The golden rule of football is you play by the whistle. The referees, despite the expectations we have in them, are just human. They might commit mistake which is so impacting to the match but that still doesn’t mean they are the reason why you’ll lose the game.
In those two goals that Hanoi FC scored, the reaction of the busmen were quite similar. They thought they caught Van Quyet or Quang Hai on the offside trap only to see the linesman keep his flag down.
After the goal was scored, utter disbelief can be seen on the faces of the players. It’s worth noting as well that in those two goals,Van Quyet and Quang Hai had enough time to operate.
