Pearls Before The Fire
Delay Drama
In the end, there was no question that Grilled were going through to their second Challenger Cup final in a row, save for the uncertainty over whether the result would stand after an hours-long delay midway through. The match would eventually resume, but the wait did no favours for Pearl Divers, who fell to their worst defeat in two months.
The Birds had pulled the big guns back out for the occasion, as
Zhao Jing Wei and
Zhu Changchun were restored to midfield. On the other side, Divers coach Nechifor Gherman placed his trust in the 4-5-1 that had countered Isle of Flames successfully a few days ago, but with some major reshuffling.
Jimmy Ouyang, whom
Djan Bacelar had keyed out as a concern, was shifted behind to shackle
Wong Ping Shun. In his stead, former national team regular Mak Chao Puay was installed as the heart of the Divers side, and with Michelangelo Viapiana and Axel Mair, they had nearly a full head on the Grilled midfielders, no shrimps themselves.
Grilled had no intention of playing into their hands, and strove to control the flow with short passes on the ground. This developed into a bull rush down the right by Wong in just the second minute, as Ouyang quickly found him a mismatch in terms of pure strength. Likewise, Japanese centreback Takeru Kobayashi counted headers as one of his pluses, but could not prevent the master that was
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim from outjumping him and powering it home.
It was a shock start that went straight to the psyche of the opponents, who never quite functioned to their full potential after that. Their gameplan had been based around keeping Grilled outside, dominating the crosses that would be forced, and spanking them on the break; unfortunately, they soon found that the first step was far easier said than done.
Grilled's policy of deliberately keeping it low, a departure from their usual mixed style, gave Divers few opportunities to intercept, and the impatient Divers side would instead be pulled into less-than-optimal positions. They were fortunate not to be punished eleven minutes in when their entire defence lost Mohd Safri's sneaky pivot inside, as he smacked it into the side-netting.
Despite that escape, there were no indications that Divers would recover, and the Birds simply kept at it. Gherman's total football philosophy, while having proven itself in the past, was a further liability in this case. Marian Mungiu, a rightback on the day, was unsure of whether to track
Low Aik Jia when the latter made a run for it, and this resulted in Low picking off former U-20 representative Ahmad Izwan Mohd Khairul Nazar, who was not in top condition.
If Divers were waiting for instructions from the bench, they were not forthcoming, as Gherman's reaction to his side going two down was to lose himself in thought. Rashid Postnikov attempted to make things happen on his own as their lone outlet, but in a cruel irony, the high balls that Divers hit at him every now and again were snapped up by
Gene Filippone.
There would be no respite for them, and Mohd Safri upped the score to 3-0 just after half an hour, concluding a series of eight sharp passes. Divers skipper Daniel Nilsson, who tried but did not quite manage to herd Mohd Safri off, could only stare blankly as the Grilled players gathered in celebration. It was a sombre reflection of the state of the game.
And then it all went dark.
The audience soon figured out that there had been an islandwide power trip on their smartphones, which was however of little consolation to the actual participants. Turkish referee Hakim Arsoy could do no more than clear the pitch and wait it out for the moment, which would stretch for far longer than most present had imagined.
As the minutes passed, some of the Divers fans were soon predictably calling for a replay. Arsoy showed no intention of that, as he planted himself in a folding chair on the halfway line, together with his linesmen. Apparently, the local association were not eager to deal with the logistics of rearranging the Singapore Cup final, among other important matches.
Still, it was looking very likely that they would have to resort to that, when the floodlights flickered back on. Messengers had to be dispatched to the dressing room to recover some of the stragglers, but after a cursory headcount, the last ten minutes of the first half were back underway. Any rhythm had been completely lost, and the teams put out some rather banal football until the real break.
Grilled were back at something like their best after that, and if Mohd Safri had been the go-to man before that,
Tian Yonghang was it now. The home favourite had consistently been one of the best performers nation-wide throughout the season, and he did nothing to spoil that assessment with his clever nicking of the ball from Kobayashi in the 63rd minute. Manzoor Azwira Mohd Hassan made himself big, but proved no obstacle to Tian's quick feet.
Although a turnaround was surely well and truly beyond Pearl Divers now, they were at least beginning to operate as a coherent unit, and had spells where they looked like a legitimate threat. They seemed locked-on to get a consolation after Mak Chao Puay found himself one-on-one with
Wong Tian Han on a fine counterattacking move - only to put it wide.
Divers wound up suffering for that, as Wong called for a spare from the ballboy, and flung it precisely to Low out wide. Mungiu had been taken to the cleaners by Grilled's flamboyant left winger all too often already, and he had no answer this time either. The only difference this time was that Low unselfishly spread it for Tian to tap in.
The opposition just could not catch a break, and after Axel Mair struck unconvincingly into
Wong Tian Han's arms - not that it mattered - Rashid Postnikov picked up a suspension for the next match with a meaningless tackle on
Lee Lee Hao. Ahmad Izwan then began to hobble after a collision with
Chow Ying Lee, but neither the referee nor his coach were interested.
There was some small excitement in the final few minutes that had Mungiu getting a top-class save out of Wong, before Mohd Safri narrowly missed out on a hat-trick, before the match was aptly summed up by the almost-invisible Ouyang, who after having being confined to the fringes of the action, smashing an overhead camera with his wild strike.
