Temprias Temper
Neundlinger Abeyance
Grilled Birds fought to a standstill against fellow reigning national champions Anagennisi Temprias, who are currently also on track for a repeat in the Cypriot A Katigoria. Temprias will probably be the happier with the result seeing as they had to play most of the match a man down, an advantage that the Birds would fail to take advantage for a long stretch, that largely attributable to the nerves of Swedish goalkeeper Malcolm Blomflod.
This had all the makings of a tantalizing tournament clash from the outset; Grilled's star-studded lineup aside, Temprias boasted of just-turned-35 iconic Pakistani national forward Navaz Talib, who has 84 caps combined at senior and youth international level. Beside Talib, Brazilian player-coach Leandrinho de Sá Lins had always been a nippy customer by himself, and Slovenian Number Eight Vanja Lovrenc may well get a long-deserved call up soon. And that is before getting to Blomflod, whose S$25.8 million signing from Gäddornas BK, proved the missing piece towards fulfilling Anagennisi Temprias' league ambitions.
With Bilal still recuperating, the Birds would attempt a central three of Moey, Chu and Teo, all youth academy products graduated within about four years of each other. That wouldn't do them any good, though, as Croatian playmaker Denis Vežić skinned Chu in the third minute, before stabbing it ahead to Talib, who threatened to simply outrun
Mateja Jeftić. The Pakistani would very unselfishly drag it back for partner Leandrinho de Sá Lins, who did the build-up justice with a stupendous unsaveable blast in off the top of the post.
While this was merely a semi-official tourney, both sets of players were nothing if not competitive, and the first signs of that would come with Neundlinger's chop at the shins of
Moey Xin Seng, after the Grilled man had shifted the ball away from his first tackle. Moey made his feelings very clear, and it was probably just as well that the referee swiftly defused the situation to a large extent, by pulling out his yellow card.
Temprias would continue having the better of this contest, however, with Grilled seldom able to turn the game towards their own attacking gifts. The opposing midfielders broke the tempo of their Grilled counterparts all too often, and with Talib always threatening on the right, Grilled's defence were forced to stay honest. Talib would nearly slip Neundlinger through in the 16th minute, before going for it himself in the 32nd. The volley from Luke Meilaq's crossfield ball was sublime, and
Jānis Salmiņš was again left unable to do anything about a strike. 2-0.
Grilled were given a big boost several minutes on, as Neundlinger went in two-footed on
Salah Kamel, seemingly having forgotten that he had already been booked, from his following reactions. This had to be an automatic second yellow, and Neundlinger would be ejected.
That would completely change the game around for the Birds, as Temprias' ability to swarm the ball-holder when out of possession was much reduced. It wasn't easy breaking their defence down despite that, granted, and
Chan Ze Han would get but a single shot on Blomflod, before the half was done. There would be a lot more of that coming, on the brighter side, and the second half would kick off with Blomflod having to punch a
Bernie Egan stunner aside.
A ten-man Temprias could do little more than stand firm against Grilled's growing possession, and after some fifteen minutes of a constant barrage, they would finally begin to crack.
Salah Kamel came around the outside for a pop-up header from a corner in the 57th minute, and Blomflod had to be alert to brush it over the bar. The next corner had a defender in the way of
Chan Ze Han's effort, leading to
Mateja Jeftić scooping it well over despite having an excellent look at goal.
Jeftić would make up for it very soon, though, which coincided with
Sølve Lunde entering for an underwhelming
Douglas Carapaica. Lunde would be more suited to bringing the ball up, which Grilled were doing a lot more of, and there would immediately be a free-kick awarded to the Birds at the other end, as
Vikram Mudaliar seemed to make a meal out of Luke Meilaq's palm to his back.
Mateja Jeftić hit it low and hard, betting that the wall would jump, and his guess would come off.
Blomflod, so invincible before this, would wind up conceding yet another goal in the very next minute. Temprias appeared vulnerable for the first time in the game as Grilled advanced in full force, and their vaunted defence would be at sixes and sevens, as
Bernie Egan's dash across the box parted the way for
Chu Xin Lee, who he sneakily left the ball for in the middle. Chu had only to put his foot through it, and the game was back level.
It was always a question of whether Temprias could survive, the match having come to this, and Grilled did themselves no favours with their increasingly-disorganized play, as the game dragged on.
Chan Ze Han's grounder that went just wide in the 68th minute would turn out to be their last, best attempt, and not even the introduction of wing pair
Heng Dong Chu and
Wu Jinglong for the final ten minutes, could spark a winner from the Birds.
