Johan Juansyah, right, of Persijap Jepara throwing a punch at Deltras Sidoarjo’s Hermawan during their Copa Indonesia third-place match on Sunday. (Photo: Safir Makki, JG)

Deltras Earns Cup Consolation

Deltras Sidarjo is still going down, but it at least earned itself a nice parachute to cushion its fall.

The Lobsters from East Java ended their season on a high note, beating Persijap Jepara 3-1 in the Copa Indonesia third-place match on Sunday at Gelora Sriwijaya Stadium in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Victory gave Deltras Rp 350 million ($34,300) in prize money to kick-start its promotion campaign next season. It finished 16th in the Indonesian Super League table, seven points from guaranteed safety, and was automatically relegated to the Premier Division .

Deltras head coach Muhammad Zein Alhadad was understandably pleased with the outcome. “This was Deltras’ best performance of the season, and I’m very pleased that we could end the season in style,” Alhadad said in the post-match press conference. “Persijap played good, but we showed better fighting spirit and played smarter.”

Alhadad said scoring first was crucial in determining the course of the match. He also praised his team’s local players, who picked up much of the slack while Persijap focused on shutting down imports Gustavo Chena and Danil Fernando.

Persijap spurned three chances to open the scoring in the first 10 minutes, but Deltras only needed one to go in front. Urwaka Yudhi scored from Fernando’s feed in the 14th minute to bring the match to life.

Pablo Frances leveled matters nine minutes later, scoring his eighth goal of the competition to match the tally of Persibo Bojonegoro’s Samsul Arief. Deltras bounced back straight away, though, as Edesio Sergio Junior gave the Lobsters the lead again at the half-hour mark.

As exciting as the first half was, the second 45 minutes was disappointing. Persijap lost much of its focus and direction, and Deltras seemed content to sit back and protect its one-goal advantage.

Deltras finished league play with the ISL’s third-leakiest defense. It shipped 55 goals in 34 matches, with only 17th-place Persita Tangerang and last-place PSIS Semarang conceding more, but Deltras managed to hold together and secure a nice going-away present.

Hermawan briefly lifted the crowd’s spirits, taking a pass from Junior and scoring Deltras’ third in the 90th minute.

The most notable event of the second half came just before full time. Frustrations threatened to boil over as Persijap striker Johan Juansyah and Hermawan nearly came to blows before being separated by teammates.

Persijap head coach Junaidi concurred with Alhadad’s assessment, saying going behind left his team facing an uphill struggle.

“We were pressing as we wanted to take the lead first, but we couldn’t regain our focus after the first goal,” he said. “Also, we put our attention on Deltras’ imports, while its locals showed a strong performance.”

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