Auksas Unadjusted
Ze Han Impeccable
Grilled Birds emerged triumphant once more in the World Battle tournament, as they dismissed former Lithuania Baltijos taurė winners, and current II.4 leaders, FC Auksas by four goals to one. Marijonas Voronkovas, hero of that cup final and capped eight times for the national side, would line up facing
Kalki Parvathaneni on his accustomed right flank; fortunately, at over 34 years of age, both him and fellow international winger Rytas Alpas were not exactly the forces of nature they were, any longer.
While not that much younger, it was indeed
Cyril Künzler who took the challenge to Alpas after barely three minutes, and he wound up blowing by Olaf Plail as well in one massive burst of acceleration. Goalkeeper Gabriel Müggler did get a hand out to Künzler's fierce effort from the side, but he couldn't control where it went - or at least not better than
Chan Ze Han could predict it. Chan arrived a step ahead of Hassan Biniaz, and prodded it into the net.
FC Auksas weren't top of their league with four wins out of four for nothing, that said, and they were a sight to behold, when their plans came together. Dutch skipper Gust Altona started it in the fifteenth minute with a strong run out of his own penalty area, and several passes later, the ball would be with Olimpijus Drūsys in the middle of Grilled's own.
Massoud Dob tried to rush the youngster, who kept a clear head to slip it by the goalie at an opportune moment.
The opponents' skilful forward line would threaten the Birds quite a bit, and the only saving grace for
Gilbert Webb and
Bhavya Panigrahi was that it remained relatively lightweight. Kalki would cop a yellow card for his valiant attempt at delaying an FC Auksas breakaway down the left, but
Bilal Mohammad Harun would then buy Grilled some much-needed breathing space with a fine twenty-yard thundercrack, that went in off the underside of the bar.
Grilled were perhaps slightly flattered by taking that lead into half-time, and had FC Auksas been more persistent in pressing from the front, it might have gotten more problematic. Fortunately for the Birds, Drūsys and the others wouldn't have the legs to keep that up for too long, and
Gilbert Webb would manage to ensure that Dob wouldn't have too much work to do, in the earlier part of the second half.
Goal service was resumed through Chan yet again, as Grilled's hottest young star could nary put a foot wrong. He read
Moey Xin Seng's mugging of an unaware Borislav Duparinov before anybody else in the 64th minute, and was off and running a full second before any defender managed to react. No-one could match his pace before he latched onto Moey's follow-up, and placed it neatly into the bottom left corner for 3-1.
FC Auksas gaffer Jochen Steigert would try to get him team back on the right track, by instructing his wingers to help out more centrally, but this wouldn't make a perceptible impact.
Vikram Mudaliar forced Müggler into the save of the day with his 74th minute scorcher, and the arrival of
Chu Xin Lee and
Heng Dong Chu for the final ten minutes gave FC Auksas very little to work on.
Bernie Egan would eventually lock it up in the very last minute, with a good juggle and finish.
