Birds Win Bovag Cup
Csavajda Top Scorer
Grilled Birds would recover from their Challenger Cup downer at the first opportunity, as they ousted Swedish III.29 representatives Brasta rockers, to win the 32-team Bovag Cup tournament. The final was hardly a classic, for which the multi-day rainfall could be blamed, but one sensed that the weather would not have had an appreciable impact on the result in any case.
Brasta rockers' path to the finals involved first topping Group F without conceding a goal, while bagging fourteen of their own. 38 year-old Hungarian player-coach Mátyás Csavajda would claim eight goals for himself in the group stage. The Rockers then disposed of Bosnia's NK Metalleghe BSI in the Round of Sixteen, 4-0, with Csavajda then opening in a 3-0 win over German Division Five side Gerfrock Rovers next. The semi-finals had them beat Czech IV.60 leaders FC Slavia Brno 2-0, which meant that they had yet to concede through all six matches.
The Birds were something else, though, and not many punters believed that the Rockers would be able to keep their clean sheet record, from the odds on offer. Additionally,
Hilal Bakhtiar was taking this entirely seriously, for example putting
Jānis Salmiņš in goal over
Manuel Vadalà's appeal.
Douglas Carapaica seems to have vaulted straight to the top of Grilled's centreback hierarchy as he would start once again, and there would be a narrow midfield flanked by
Kalle ter Berg and
Salah Kamel.
Much had been made of the secondary contest between Mátyás Csavajda and
Chan Ze Han for the tournament Golden Boot, but it would be another who would get the scoring going. Argentine midfielder Juan De Dios Tavarozzi would be one of the Rockers' most effective players here, but he had nothing on
Bilal Mohammad Harun when the latter decided to run for it, in the seventh minute. There was no hint of subtlety about Bilal's intent, as he drove his foot through the ball from the semi-circle of the penalty area, and no need for any as Inodoro Jovanovich would never have been able to get across to save his screamer.
Well, that was it for Brasta rockers' proud record of not conceding, and it was all they could do to not yield another too soon. It was just as well that they had Jordan international Qudamah Hammad in defence, which probably kept Grilled from having another shot on target, till
Chan Ze Han swiped a header off the crossbar in the 22nd minute. The Rockers went into counterattacking gear at that, and they would eventually release Mattias Andersson from the left; they had taken too long, however, and
Jānis Salmiņš covered the expected angles without too much of a problem.
Chan was certainly taking the Golden Boot chase seriously, but he remained selfless enough to pull wide for a cross on Grilled's next meaningful attack. It should have been an easy header for
Kalle ter Berg too, had David Lescott not contested it. That brought another immediate counter from the Rockers, this time long down the centre, but Alexandr Špetla sent it way too high after an excellent takedown with Douglas breathing down his back.
It was Grilled's turn to try the breakaway after former Dominican Republic U-20 star winger Ennio Ojeda outran
Salah Kamel to force Salmiņš to dash out, and the goalkeeper did very well to find
Bernie Egan at the other end; alas, Ter Berg would thrash it off the outside of the post, on arriving late. The Dutchman would finally get it on target in the 37th minute, after an intricate free-kick routine ended with him making the third and crucial run inside from the right side.
Two-nil was about what the Birds deserved, after claiming nearly two-thirds of the possession, and it would be three just five minutes into the second half. It wasn't very complicated either, as Grilled gradually pressed yet more deeply into the opposition half, and
Chu Xin Lee was present to make the most of a moment of weakness from Lescott.
Chan Ze Han prodded the ball away from the distracted defender with his toe, and Chu baited Jovanovich into going to ground, before scooping it over the goalkeeper into the net.
There could be few expectations of a comeback, all the more given how little the Rockers were producing in this half, and at times it appeared mostly a question of whether
Chan Ze Han would get the goal he needed. Chan would have Hammad's special attention, but that did clear some room for others such as
Douglas Carapaica, who confirmed his taste for goal with a humdinger from the right corner of the penalty area. Jovanovich just about blocked that thanks to a firm wrist, and
Bernie Egan would send it just over, no thanks to what looked like a telling nudge by Alexandr Špetla at the right moment.
Bakhtiar would evince a wry smile as he watched together with
Moey Xin Seng and
Heng Dong Chu on the touchline, where they were waiting to come on. There was then the inevitable comment on how similar they looked, as they replaced Mudaliar and Kamel in a double substitution. Brasta rockers made the most of the stoppage to catch their breath, and they would mount a concerning counter off Grilled's very next attack. Finnish winger Ari Pihajoki hit a superb one-touch long ball towards Tavarozzi, who sadly bounced his curler inches wide.
That miss took a lot out of the Rockers team, who were about running on fumes by now, and the Birds for their part were finding little joy in their all-too-obvious attempts to feed
Chan Ze Han, who was being double-teamed now.
Sølve Lunde would get on for Douglas with five minutes remaining, and the Norwegian centre-back would have little enough to do, as the clock ran down.
