Tigers Ahoy!
King Of The Cups
This Pacific Cup quarterfinals had unavoidably been billed as a showdown between two of the winningness cup sides in Singapore and Malaysia, with Grilled Birds having won four Singapore Cups and six Challenger Cups, and the Malaysian Tigers, six Pialas Malaysia and three Challenger Cups; that included three of the last four for the Tigers, with them having seen off Naz Investment Team just a fortnight back, with the duo having dominated the previous nine finals. This was, needless to say, a record surely replicated in very few countries.
The Malaysian Tigers - nicknamed the Pirates, for historical reasons - oft had their cup exploits discounted due to a perceived lack of competition, which made this Pacific Cup tournament a truer test of their abilities to their critics. Well, they had gotten this far without sweating much at all, as they dominated Group D with three wins and a 16-1 goal record, before thrashing Indonesia's ciorbella 5-1 in the previous round. If that were not enough, they had the top-scoring strike duo in the tourney, with Kurt Bisazza and Mauro Cicconi sharing fourteen goals between them.
They would meet their equals in the Birds, however, who had bettered their group stage dominance with nine points and a +24 goal difference, and an identical 5-1 in the Round of Sixteen versus Tanfite F.C.; with so little to pick between the teams here, much would rest on the tactical choices made, and here the Pirates' player-coach Benjamin Grant could be said to have blinked. While always a flexible side, with them for instance relying on a 4-3-3 to defeat Naz Investment Team in their latest Piala Malaysia final, there remained a sense of concession in their five-strong backline.
Knowing how vulnerable Grilled had been to disciplined counter sides, though, it was a rational if not the bravest choice, and the Pirates were famed for the creativity in their counterattacks, if nothing else. Grant's setup had been constructed around the fundamental ideal that any of the defenders should be an expert at sparking a breakaway, and with their midfield pressing back as well, the Birds found themselves choked off more often than not. The Pirates sprung their first major counter 26 minutes in, with Qi Kuanwei flighting a fifty-yarder into Kurt Bisazza's sights, but fortunately
Gilbert Webb was there to throw him off his shot.
Grilled went from seemingly being in deep trouble, to being ahead in the next three minutes. Too stubborn to change their tack, they simply kept on plugging their way down the centre with a single-mindedness that bordered on the naive. This did work to their advantage when
Teo Chuan Yong found himself abandoned on the right, and he made sure that the disrespect was punished, with a superb cross whipped in just above head height. That was just begging to be attacked boldly, and
Kalle ter Berg leapt in with the perfect looping header, a hair above Jan Gjerde's reach.
The Birds going into the lead would change the complexion of the match entirely, with the Pirates going from predator to prey. What had felt like cunning baiting of Grilled into a trap, would now have the taste of a one-sided beatdown instead, as the Grilled frontline asserted itself over the opposing defence.
Bernie Egan successfully lost his markers a few minutes after Ter Berg's opener, and his intelligently-placed grounder would require an alert Gjerde to deny with his leg.
Malaysian Tigers tried, but could not swing the momentum back their way, and this persisted into the second half. Their much-vaunted strike pair would be frozen out almost entirely as the Birds zoomed about in their half, to the extent that
Gilbert Webb could take time off to do a spot of shooting. The Pirates' moment would come in the 59th minute, after another close shave from Egan, which built into a free-kick for them at the other end. Slovakian Rudolf Šramčík aimed for the left post, and was dreadfully unlucky to watch his piledriver cannon right back.
That miss could only be all the harder to take, as Grilled Birds went two-nil up from a similar position, barely two minutes afterwards.
Chan Ze Han was clearly fishing for the foul on the boundary of the Pirates' box, as he found space at a premium, and
Bhavya Panigrahi would confront a four-man wall with
Bilal Mohammad Harun and
Moey Xin Seng limbering up meaningfully at the far side. Webb started his own run-up a fraction after Panigrahi threatening to send it across, but it would instead be the Singaporean defender to smash it to the top corner.
That cup final hat-trick had certainly not harmed Panigrahi's confidence, and from his amused reaction as Webb ran into him right after his delivery, his sense of humour too. With this, it was now all on the Pirates to find an answer, but adaptation on a dime would prove hard to come by. Grilled were certainly not cooperating either, and while Šramčík tried to present himself as an extra outlet on the right, his teammates were barely even managing to hold on to the ball when they had possession, which was itself rare.
As such, the Birds would enter cruise control going into the final ten minutes, with
Wu Jinglong making it his main business to shut Šramčík down, after coming on for Kalki in the 80th.
Chu Xin Lee and finally
Salah Kamel would take no chances either after being subbed in, which had Grilled qualify for the semifinals in a trot.
