Barito Putra, PSS Sleman Won

Barito Putra solidifies their position as the current leader of the Eastern Conference after a convincing 4-1 win against Arema Malang at home today, Wednesday (2/21). With this win, Barito is five points father from the second-placed team in the standing, defending champions PSM Makassar.

A hard kick from Barito's foreign striker Bako Sadissou caught Arema off-guard just after seven minutes. This early goal made the Arema players panicked, and Barito was quick to capitalize on it. Amir Yusuf Pohan doubled the lead on the 13th minute, and seven minutes later, attacking midfielder Stephen Weah - younger brother of the world-famous George Weah - widened the gap to 3-0. The score held until half-time.

In the second half, Barito kept controlling the match and as a result, Bako scored his second goal on the 47th minute. Leading with such a wide margin, Barito Putra players relaxed and became a bit careless. Arema started to take the attacking initiatives, resulting in several corner kicks for the visitors. On the 70th minute, Arema's striker Ahmad Junaedi cleverly scored after a fine pass from a corner kick.

The goal, however, didn't really help his team, as the score held until the end of regulation.

Another win today was also registered by PSS Sleman against guests Persma Manado. Muhammad Ansori scored the first goal for the home team on the 21st minute. Persma then controlled the match after the goal, but never succeeded, and another goal from Fajar Listiyantoro on the 51st minute sunk them even lower.

With this 2-0 win, PSS Sleman lifted themselves out of the relegation zone and moved up to the eight place.

The last league match played today was between Persema Malang and Gelora Putra Delta (GPD). Even though playing in front of their own fans, Persema had a hard time in making good chances in front of GPD's goal. It was, in fact, GPD's young players who time after time gave real threats to Agus Setiawan, Persema's goalie. The match ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

After the match, Persema's foreign striker Jean Michael Babouaken was seen arguing harshly with Persema's head coach, Rohanda. Babouaken was mainly complaining about the coach's decision of not starting him in the match, and only letting him play in the last 10 minutes of the game.

from various sources