Match For Mañana
Alcantara's Experience Pays
Grilled needed thirteen minutes of extra time to differentiate themselves from Ukrainian Division Four side Mañana, who held their own in Panama's Punk Rock Place! stadium in an Insane Hard World Cup quarterfinals that attracted over five thousand paying spectators.
Mañana had enjoyed a walkover against Stretford United from Danmark the week before, but had impressed previously by topping Group F with a perfect qualifying record of three wins, winning by five goals in two of those matches. The bright sunshine of Panama didn't suit them, though, and
Tapesh Chowdhury was especially active, tormenting all who came to shackle him on the left.
The opening goal would come through a basic move through the middle for all of Chowdhury's trickery, especially with the raw
Feng Darong given a berth on the right wing, where he tried hard but failed to exert himself on the game. Branbilla and Subri kept the ball going in the air, and it dropped nicely for Spirig to blast past the imposing Sergiu Drãgoi with aplomb.
Grilled could not relax as Mañana were quite a bit stronger in the middle of the park, and had the ball gone to a forward instead of a central defender in Dan Jindamai, they might have levelled it quickly. The Thai defender was left alone in the box after a corner was half-cleared, but panicked and sent the ball skipping over the crossbar.
Somehow another corner was given for that, and this time Subri was booked for tumbling into Franck Rodrigues while chasing the flight of the ball. Grilled finally hit the ensuing free-kick into touch well into the opposition half, and sat pretty until the half-time whistle went.
Dutch forward Jerry Salverda cancelled out Grilled's slender lead a minute into the restart, as he reacted fastest after a deflected shot bounced back off the crossbar.
Sándor Deme, who was caught ball-watching, was noticeably distraught. No such luck for Grilled in comparism, as nobody was anywhere close to the rebound after Subri's scorcher. Deme, perhaps trying to atone for his mistake, protested that the goalkeeper was delaying his goal-kick, but inevitably got booked for that.
The matched turned scrappy as neither side were willing to risk it as time ran down, but at least it remained relatively free-flowing with the only other yellow card being for a bit of petulance by Fredrik Devold. Subri's launching a shot into the atmosphere signalled the end of normal time.
Grilled were likely the happier of the two, as the Ukrainians suffered badly in the heat and humidity. Even a strong player like Joaquín de Tena was clearly breathless after an hour and a half of tireless running, and Jindamai had to resort to a desperate sliding tackle to stop bin Yaacob when he would have just run after him earlier on.
The golden goal was finally delivered by
Luis Alcántara, after a series of sideways passes saw him with some space at the edge of the box. Known for his free-kicks some years ago, the semi-retired Argentinean squared up and hammered the ball with some venom. Drãgoi dove quickly, but only managed to push the strike into his own net.
