Marked for Iran
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
Iran puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Madura United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Aji Kusuma falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Nur Diansyah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market4 Jan 2027
PSIM are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Madura United will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
8 matches without a win for Madura United
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Madura United are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nur Diansyah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Iran gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taufik Hidayat is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Riquelme
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Sep 2026
It needed Júnior Brandão to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Semen Padang, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
-
Squad
Aji Kusuma dropped after a run of poor form
-
Player ratings
An afternoon Ruxi will want back
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Júnior Brandão was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.48, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Persijap, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Pedro Monteiro
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jasey Wehrmann is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Riquelme
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market21 Sep 2026
The Riquelme talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Madura United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Ilhamsyah puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Madura United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Madura United
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Madura United are no longer polite ones.
Market7 Sep 2026
The PSM deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Satrio Azhar reports back to Madura United with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Madura United did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Júnior Brandão, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jasey Wehrmann is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Madura United will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Taufik Hidayat falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Júnior Brandão
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Júnior Brandão has come out of that comparison in the side, and Madura United have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match5 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Bali United came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Nobody could get near Riyatno Abiyoso
-
Market
The window shut and Iran is still in the building
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Riquelme scores twice — 8.69
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Madura United
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Madura United are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Madura United do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Jordy Wehrmann
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jasey Wehrmann falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ahmad Rusadi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madura United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market31 Aug 2026
PSM are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Madura United will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madura United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taufik Hidayat is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Iran dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Riquelme runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Adhitya Harlan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Madura United.
Match15 Aug 2026
Point won or two lost for Madura United?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Maluku Utara United? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 5.22. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 5.62, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.23, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Júnior Brandão. 3‑1 against Persebaya, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jasey Wehrmann has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jasey Wehrmann falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Nur Diansyah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aji Kusuma, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Taufik Hidayat has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Madura United.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Iran dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.