Coke Cup soccer enters semifinals

JAKARTA (JP): Upsetting favorite champion Central Java with a thin margin win of 2-1, South Sulawesi advances to the semifinal matches of this year's National Coke Cup Under-15 soccer championship in Surabaya today.

With the surprise win and making it as runner-up of Group L, South Sulawesi will take on Jakarta, winner of Group K, while West Java, which tops Group L, will challenge host East Java, runner-up of Group K in today's semifinal cross over matches.

For South Sulawesi, the margin of just one point was exactly what it needed to get a semifinal berth. For Central Java, for which a draw would have sufficed to secure it entry into one of the semifinals' four doors, the loss must have been really annoying.

Central Java was openly aggressive and scored their first goal at the 10th minute. But Sunday's dusk witnessed the favorite of the match blundering.

The goal so boiled the blood of South Sulawesi's boys that it managed to penetrate Central Java's solid combination of short and long baits with an equalizer at the 26th minute.

Knowing that the draw would be enough to guarantee a semifinal berth, favorite Central Java seemed to be so overconfident that it slowed down its play in the second half.

South Sulawesi, on the other hand, took a totally different stance. As if the match were a matter of life and death, they piled on their attacks. But Central Java's goalie easily deflected the onslaught of offensive maneuvers.

Then came the seven minutes to the final whistle which saw Central Java's Wawan touch the ball with his hand, generating a penalty.

South Sulawesi's striker, Tresna Yustisin, quickly grabbed the opportunity of zeroing in on a penalty kick which tipped the scales.

"The penalty was legal; one of our players did touch the ball with his hands. Yes, we are the loser, but I'm satisfied with my boys' performance. They have done what they should. The odds were simply against us," Central Java coach, Edi Winarto, said. (arf)