Galácticos Gazumped
Cyril The King
Grilled Birds returned to winning ways in the Division Battles, although they had to leave it until literally the last minute, against São Paulo's Galácticos Football Club. As with the Birds, the Brazilians were still in it for cup glory, having just defeated Nintendo 64 in their country's main cup; they had their vulnerabilities too, admittedly, with Estrela Solitária 1988 having manhandled them 4-0 in the league just before that, with the Galácticos having no solution to their deep-lying defence.
This was not a concern that they were likely to face against the Birds, of course, and they would declare a 2-5-3 befitting their national philosophy. Their much-loved French forward Denis Furcy, now in his eighth season with Galácticos after a S$13.7 million move from English side MTV Woodpecker 2013, would be their main star here. In reality, however, Aussie central defender and backup goalie Freeman Naylor would immediately fall back, making the Galácticos system a 3-5-2 in truth.
There was little indication that it would fare well against Grilled's strengths, though, as even without
Chan Ze Han and
Kalki Parvathaneni - both just returned to training - they had more than enough personnel to bombard their opponents with. Chief amongst them today would be the 32 year-old Polish winger
Cyril Künzler, who seems to have benefitted from his reduced appearances. He would run down the right flank as if he were ten years younger, and his direct counterpart Nguyễn Phúc Vị - capped once for the Vietnamese national youth team - was definitely not equipped to stop him.
Five minutes had just passed when Künzler scooted past Nguyễn again, this time on the inside with
Moey Xin Seng threatening the overlap, and there were several plausible targets awaiting his cross. Instead, Künzler opted to nip outside the returning Asbjørn Moltrup, before trying for the far top corner of Stefan Bonev's goal. Honestly, there were far more sensible options here, but given that the winger executed the strike flawlessly, it was all academic.
Such was
Cyril Künzler's near-oppressive excellence in this first half, that he could conceivably have notched up a hat-trick - or more - by its conclusion. Two further attempts of his stood out from the lot, the first in the 28th minute, when he simply razed the Galácticos' press man by man, only to lose his footing setting himself for the shot. His 35th minute free-kick was headed towards the same top corner, only for Bonev to claw it aside. Otherwise, the Birds might have scored from
Neeraj Muthyala's tasty 12th minute cross too, but Alexandre Nunes Lourenço flew in with the clearing header, just ahead of
Vikram Mudaliar.
Künzler's level dropped only marginally after the interval, and he was almost immediately back in the action, as Grilled's swarming attacking front ran their opponents down in the 53rd. Simon Walch, usually so assured on the ball, could only be flustered with two Grilled players breathing down his neck, and a change of possession saw Künzler line up for a go, on the edge of the penalty area. He obliged with a very respectable low drive, but Bonev got to it.
It remained nearly all going Grilled's way at this stage, and
Gilbert Webb's 2-0 goal in the 59th minute seemed about a given, after such an extended spell of midfield dominance. To be honest, Galácticos' performance up till now could only be described as slightly underwhelming, considering the pedigree in their ranks, and from how fullback Olivier Schokkaert had to take
Islom Davlatov down - and be booked - after being outwitted down their right side, a thrashing didn't seem out of the question.
Galácticos' fate would turn around completely in the next two minutes, entirely unexpectedly. Davlatov took the free-kick rather haphazardly, and it was intercepted by Nguyễn on the other flank. Surveying the field, he struck it back cross-field, dropping it on a dime into the path of homegrown favourite Ronaldo Nazário, who steamed right between Grilled's centreback to claim the reducer.
Grilled hadn't really registered that, when Galácticos got themselves back level on their next approach. Acun Ağış was the main provider this time, running on the outside, and the crisp offensive move only involved three passes, the last inside for striker Natale Salvadore. The Italian veteran had judged
Gilbert Webb's approach perfectly, which allowed him to turn around his challenge neatly, before lobbing an approaching
Massoud Dob with some verve.
All of a sudden, it was the Galácticos who seemed the more likely to win this one, and
Hovaness Noubaryan would send
Heng Dong Chu on in an attempt to spark Grilled's attack once more. The match would descend into a sullen cautiousness instead, however, notwithstanding Galácticos' own introduction of Alaor Tabajara with ten minutes left. By the time
José Luiz Velho entered for
Chu Xin Lee in the last minute of regular time, both sides appeared resigned to the draw.
It was not to be, though, as two extra minutes were declared, and Heng finally got the chance to make an impact that he had been waiting for. Nazário, the Galácticos captain, had sprinted upfield in an effort to win it for his team, but this left plenty of space for Heng on the return clearance. There was a desperate recovery as the Galácticos midfield rushed to cover, but Heng would find
Moey Xin Seng before he was caught up, and Moey would in turn find the net with an immediate grounder to the near post.
