Vindobona Too Spicy
-Ers Make No Errors
The Birds were eliminated in the Round of Sixteen of the Ravens Trophy, as they were outmatched by a finely-balanced FC Vindobona. Unlike the opposition, Grilled's unsoundness at the back cost them dearly.
The Austrian fourth division leaders didn't start out particularly strongly, however, and despite former youth international Roland Bräuer's undoubted dependability, they would be plowed through by Grilled's inspired wing play early on.
Cyril Künzler would dart behind Nikolaus Rieser to receive an apparently-overhit ball from the other flank, and his return wasn't half bad either -
Islom Davlatov showed no quarter, and bundled it in with himself.
Much of the interesting action was taking place on the outside, with the middle being overly congested. It hardly went a single way, to be sure, and young Christof Fagschlunger had his moments against Künzler too. Twenty-four minutes in, he became one of a select few to skin the Pole decisively, and followed it up with a fine floated ball, that Florian Berger dipped over
Valentin Batâr with immaculate technique.
The game swung back Grilled's way after that equaliser, and Vindobona were arguably fortunate to escape, when goalkeeper Günther Reich appeared to wip
Chu Xin Lee off his feet, as the midfielder bore his way down on goal. The referee gave no signal, but Grilled would not be denied, and took the lead once more a couple of minutes later through
Yuki Irie's slot-in from a narrow angle.
This scoreline more or less reflected how the first half had gone, given Vindobona slowly moving up the gears, and Grilled had to moreover survive several scares from Bräuer's non-stop probing. It soon became apparent that Fagschlunger was only getting started, and the Birds would discover - to their great regret - that he was not somebody who could be allowed to cut loose in the middle.
With
Cyril Künzler never a particularly natural marker, Fagschlunger would find plenty of gaps whenever he drifted to the inside, and he would skip past
Moey Xin Seng's belated attentions in the 52nd minute, to find the top corner of the net with a thirty-yard cannonball.
As with the ill-fated Mottl for Grilled in midweek, Fagschlunger was having the game of his life, and there was no question of him slowing now. Vindobona wisely changed their objective to getting the ball to him as often as possible, and Bernhard Rothe did his part by allowing the ball to run through to the could-do-no-wrong Number Thirty. Batâr actually anticipated where he would place it, but the grounder was too precise to stop.
The Birds could hardly catch a breather, but they would stem the leakage, largely due to
Moey Xin Seng's mammoth contributions to plugging the backline. Künzler would just about get Fagschlunger under his thumb, but Grilled now had to find a goal somehow, just to stay in it.
This they did in the 73rd minute, although
Neeraj Muthyala's original attempt from a fleeting half-chance probably wouldn't have bothered Reich. Unfortunately for both the Vindobona goalkeeper and centreback Jan Muchitsch, the latter leapt in to block a fraction too late, and succeeded only in redirecting it past his stumped goalie.
Grilled's best form was long past them by then, sadly, and it was the opponents' superior experience that would count most at the end. It would also have been something of a travesty had Roland Bräuer not gotten something out of this one, given how fervently he had toiled, and his moment came with an unstoppable drive from the right edge of the six-yard box, in the 82nd minute.
Nikolaus Rieser would hammer the last nail in Grilled's coffin as an unshackled Christof Fagschlunger fittingly applied the finishing touches, and the Birds clearly hadn't the heart to dig themselves out of that one.
