Single Minute Miracle
One For The Ages
The Cooking Pot witnessed an ironclad classic today, as Grilled came from being on the verge of their first scoreless league defeat at home for over five seasons in the 88th minute, to raucously jubilating over a 3-1 win when the incredible match ended. SKF F.C., who were perhaps a hundred seconds from achieving what Arrogancae last did in Season 46, were rendered completely stunned in the aftermath.
It had all begun so promisingly for the visitors, who went a way towards avenging their 3-6 loss of three weeks ago when loyal winger Che Harun bin Omar got the 99th goal of his long SKF career in only the fifth minute. Manuel Kaindl aided in the execution of a simple but flawless give-and-go, and the returning
Edmund Kryus put his hand up too late to stop the chip.
SKF head coach Álvaro Carretto saw nothing wrong with their formation then, and sent out exactly the same 3-5-2 against the Birds. Grilled on their part welcomed Kryus back, while Noubaryan was reinstated as his reserve. With
lu Zunwen failing a late fitness test,
Zhu Changchun went on the left, with the 32 year-old
Abdul bin Jantan the Birds' new preferred playmaker.
SKF did recognize that they had to be conservative to begin with, though, and their players worked tremendously as a unit to pull that off. For all of
Shiya Shaahee's invention down the right, the visitors were as one in harrying and cutting off passing options, even from the front, and the Birds found no opening to get their beak in through the entire first half.
Not much changed in the second half, and some got to thinking if Carretto had found Grilled's Achilles heel. László Dunavölgyi was a complete destroyer in midfield, while Che Harun, who had been handed the responsibility of captaining his team, exerted far more influence on the game than a winger had any right to.
So complete and well-worked was SKF's suffocating net, that not only did they keep Grilled from even managing a shot on target of note, they didn't even have to commit more than a handful of minor fouls. In desperation,
Niculae Stanca tasked
Gleb Dorogan to get in there with twenty minutes remaining, but not even the vastly experienced Moldovan could get any purchase.
The originally near-63000 strong crowd dwindled steadily as the visitors kept up their stranglehold, which to be fair was not producing the most aesthetic football. With SKF looking set to pull off a textbook smash-and-grab, barely half of the attendees were left when Greek defender Sofoklis Froussos went to ground hard in the 89th.
Perhaps he had expected referee Jörn Classen to halt the game and eat away more precious seconds, but Classen demurred, and
Zhu Changchun quite understandably played to the whistle. Never a recognized wing man, he found his moves in the nick of time, and went inside a protesting Asse Badji to ring in an equaliser with 46 seconds of regular time left, to huge relief from the stands.
In the circumstances, this alone would have been a satisfying conclusion to the game, but Grilled had other ideas. Revitalized by the possibilities, they attacked without being burdened by any other considerations, and
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim earned groans when he appeared to have spoiled a magnificent comeback by lobbing wide.
It turned out to be a sign of better things to come, as the energy-sapping pressing tactics of SKF finally took its toll. The goal kick was headed right back into the fray, and hardworking Russian defender Kirill Kurapov's legs finally went when called upon to chase a
Chow Ying Lee in full flow. Kurapov did put in his sliding challenge, but only after Chow had gotten his strike off, and not only twisted his knee badly in the process but also got carded for his recklessness.
The stadium clock ticked to 89:42 as the ball trickled over the line, and the scoreboard flashed: Grilled Birds 2, SKF F.C. 1.
The visitors had the fight completely taken out of them at this point, but they still could have done better when
Zhao Jing Wei dribbled straight into the box from the restart, then put it in at 89:45, for what must surely be the first time that The Cooking Pot had seen three goals in the final minute in over 250 league games.
