Tanfite Torpedoed
Egan Carries On
Argentine III.15 first-ranked club Tanfite F.C. - revived after their initial version went defunct - were bundled out of the Pacific Cup at the Round of 16 by Grilled Birds this day. Two relatively early goals left the maroon-and-grey clad Buenos Aires natives with an uphill task, and while they had pegged their hopes on sitting back, their defence was simply not quite up to those that had given the Birds cause for concern in the not-too-distant past.
Tanfite had of course eliminated Parrilla de Chinchulin y Morcilla 4-0 in the last round, with Parrilla ironically attempting the same sit-and-soak against them, to not-dissimilar non-success. They were not entirely unequipped for it, with 35 year-old Swiss Patrik Ginger returning to rightback, in an experienced backline. Unfortunately, this meant sacrificing the bubbly Slovakian Number Nine Adam Topolan in attack, and none of Tanfite's four at the back was truly up to containing their Grilled adversaries in any case.
Pedder Kirmayer's aid as a midfield shield allowed the Argentines to live through the first twenty minutes without former Azerbaijani U-20 goalie Kamran Məhərrəmov taking too many attempts, but it would always feel like a matter of time, as Grilled's forward line put up an exhibition in front of goal.
Chan Ze Han notched the breakthrough in the 21st minute after extended to-and-fro in the penalty area, and
Bernie Egan immediately afterwards took his count for this tournament to double digits, with a firm header.
That did spur Tanfite's first big counter of the day, following
Teo Chuan Yong's atrocious lunge from behind on Joseba Dosrius, to which a canny Isidro Almario wouldn't wait to spread the ball out to the lightly-populated opposite flank. Jérémy Bresson had all the time in the world to pick out a target, but Norwegian forward Per Richard Langnes might have been the wrong choice on retrospect, as he sidefooted it weakly and off course.
The following few minutes then went by in a flurry of reprisals from the Birds, with Teo suddenly getting into the mood. Yellow-carded he might have been, but subdued he certainly wasn't, as he first supplied Moey before taking his own shot on Məhərrəmov, and doing rather better; the keeper somehow still managed to bat it aside, however.
Vikram Mudaliar would be next to experience why Məhərrəmov had been such a sensation especially in his younger days, as the lithe six-footer dropped low to stop his well-disguised flick in a flash, despite the absolute lack of warning.
Tanfite were doing quite well for themselves going into half-time, and their good work would continue into the second half for a time. Kirmayer's constant caution would be a liability towards their bid for a reducer, on the flip side, and Grilled would instead go three up after 57 minutes.
Bhavya Panigrahi drove his free-kick hard at the base of Tanfite's five-man wall, and although Rene Strømberg took most of the force out of the shot, an alert
Salah Kamel would snap the loose ball up.
This match would be completely over soon, were Tanfite unable to get a goal back, which they finally did through Bernhard Pfeifer about five minutes later. The Birds had gotten a little careless in maintaining formation discipline, and Kirmayer saw the middle part nicely for him, after a Grilled push had broken down. This was exactly what Pfeifer had been waiting an hour for, and the Austrian striker kept his nerve to take the ball beyond
Jānis Salmiņš, for a cool finish from a tight angle.
Frankly, however, that changed little for Tanfite, all the more as Grilled were revitalized by timely reinforcements in the seventieth minute.
Wu Jinglong and
Chu Xin Lee took over from Kalki and Kamel, and immediately set about making life difficult for their Tanfite counterparts. It took merely three minutes for the Tanfite backline to succumb to chaos, amongst which
Vikram Mudaliar emerged to knock Grilled's fourth goal past an isolated Məhərrəmov.
Wu and Chu would then combine on the Birds' very next corner, with the latter cleverly switching from a direct attempt to an assist, once he judged the delivery to be unsuitable for scoring purposes.
Wu Jinglong was exactly where Chu wanted somebody to be, and Tanfite would rue not having stationed anybody at the back post. Radu Dumitriu would have a go after
Kalle ter Berg's strike came off the post, and Langnes crashed an admirable drive off Salmiņš' crossbar next, but the overall direction of this game was never in real doubt.
