GBLA Pitch: PSM's Excuse or a Harsh Truth?

Brisbane Road did not teach me to accept defeat; it taught me to look at it through a different pair of eyes. That night, Leyton Orient left the Football League after 112 years, and the stands still sang under the dim lights. Tonight, at the Gelora Bandung Lautan Api, I did not shed tears, but I saw a coach looking at defeat through a lens of resentment. The match belonged to the opening round of the Super League 2026/2027 season, where Persib Bandung, nicknamed Maung Bandung, hosted PSM Makassar. The final score was 1-3 for the home side, a result not entirely surprising, but it became more bitter after the statements of coach Darije Kalezic. The Bosnian strategist immediately pointed his finger at the pitch, saying the playing conditions were not up to standard and his team was denied the right to train on the pitch before the game. Television showed clear images: patches of grass peeling away, revealing dry, cracked earth. As someone working in sports science, I can easily imagine the severe impact on the tempo of the match. A bad pitch does not only ruin short passes, making the ball bounce erratically, but also creates unexpected, risky situations. When players cannot predict the ball's behavior, they become hesitant in every tackle, and confidence in their style of play erodes. Here, the story is not just about a poor pitch, but about the inequality in adaptability. Persib Bandung plays at GBLA regularly; they know every dip, every bare patch, knowing when to shoot high or pass low. In contrast, even if PSM Makassar were allowed to train before the match, they would have only a short session to feel the surface, not enough to turn into familiarity. That is a huge advantage for the home team, but not something a coach can rely on forever. I remember in my master's thesis, I wrote: 'An empty summer stadium is when I hear most clearly the beating heart of this game.' Tonight, the stadium is not empty, but that heart is still hurting beneath the dead grass. Kalezic is right that a visiting team should have access to the pitch before a match, but that is only part of the problem. Because when both teams step onto the field, they face the same conditions. Persib also had to endure strange bounces, but they found a way to live with it. So, the Bosnian coach's complaint seems to be hiding something. A 1-3 defeat cannot be explained only by bare patches. Why did PSM's defense concede three goals? Why was there no connection between the lines? Perhaps the coach avoids mentioning tactical errors, avoiding talking about how his players were inferior in reading the game or reacting to balls that rebounded off the surface. That is a mental trap many coaches fall into: turning objective circumstances into a shield for their own responsibility. But I do not want to criticize him. I have seen small teams playing on gravel pitches in England, and they never blame the pitch. They know the reward of the game lies in overcoming adversity. Kalezic may believe the match quality was ruined by the pitch, but Persib fans will remember this victory as a display of adaptation and exploiting the opponent's weaknesses. I write about football, but actually I write about people running on grass. Tonight, those people were running on a lawn that was sighing. PSM players may have felt powerless, but they also offered no excuses. Meanwhile, their own coach was the most vocal – at least it shows he was trying to protect his players. But protecting by pointing at the pitch does not earn them points or maturity. This defeat might be remembered as proof of the inequality in the league's stadium system. But if PSM want to go far, they need to learn to fight in every condition. As they say in top-level football: no matter how bad the grass, the ball must still roll. And great coaches do not stand on the sideline just to complain about the pitch; they find ways to master it. The open question remains: When GBLA is renovated, when the pitch becomes perfect, will PSM Makassar still have an excuse for failure? Will they build a strong mentality? As a writer, I always believe that the best sports stories are not about victory, but about how people rise after falls on barren land. And this time, the GBLA pitch has become a haunting character in their story.