Habit To Extreme
Heikki Herculean
It was a day to savour for 36 year-old Finnish international winger Heikki Lius, who banged four goals in against Grilled Birds, for his beloved Nälkäiset Sedät; astoundingly, even
that was not sufficient for the recent Suomen Ahven-haastajacup winners to take this World Battle fixture, as they found themselves relentlessly chased down by the Birds, who really appear to be relying a little too much on their ability to do so.
The 36 year-old one-club man would start on the left side of a diminished Sedät, who had to start in a 3-4-2 after some technicalities at the border customs, with head coach Ingemar Andresen - himself a former Faroese youth international - preferring to start without reserve goalie Kalle Kelander in outfield. Despite that, Sedät's was a veteran lineup that had seen it all, with no less than five internationals, and seven from the midfield back was more than enough for them to handle most of the threats that the Birds posed.
Not only that, it was even enough for them to take the lead from an unprepossessing baseline, as they made sure to leave a man or two up, for whatever opportunities that might pop up. Grilled were pressingly ominously closer into the Sedät third by the 22nd minute, but a stray dribble from
Chu Xin Lee was enough to allow them to mount their own riposte, and very promptly at that. Heikki Lius took the shortest possible path from left wing as he mirrored Ivan Wetzelaar's dash down the middle, and was positioned perfectly to seize upon
Jānis Salmiņš' initial block.
That was a classic counter, but Grilled would have their own one-club men to count on. After Sedät's goal, the Birds would temporarily switch to long ball bombardments to little avail, and returned to their usual passing combinations to create the equalizer.
Bilal Mohammad Harun would tie it up very nicely indeed in the metronome role, as he broke the hypnotic rhythm by suddenly sweeping it through for
Chan Ze Han. Chan was ready and waiting for just that, and blasted it onwards to the far post of ex-Indonesian U-20 goalkeeper Subur Swandana.
The home attendees definitely appreciated that finish, only to watch in mounting horror as Grilled then fell apart wholesale. It began from Sedät's first corner kick of the day, from which Lius went up just before
Teo Chuan Yong, and reached an ideal elevation for the header at just the right moment. A couple of minutes later, they went 3-1 up, as the Birds' defenders were left looking silly following
Mateja Jeftić's abortive dribble out from the back, and
Douglas Carapaica's premature appeal for offside. That didn't phase the supremely-experienced Ivan Wetzelaar, capped sixteen times for the Dutch national side, as he proceeded to reel Salmiņš out before passing him on the outside to finish.
Heikki Lius would go on to complete his hat-trick before half-time with a powerful rising effort coming from wide right, a testament to his versatility. It was then just as well that the half ended when it did for Grilled, who replaced the entirely-ineffectual
Kalki Parvathaneni with
Heng Dong Chu for the second forty-five minutes. Chu was of course another prime candidate for getting subbed, given his complete failure to handle Lius, but he did at least offer something going forward for the Birds.
Things didn't get better for Grilled any time soon, however, as Nälkäiset Sedät found their groove, and it was the Finnish club who asked all the questions beginning this half. Russian midfielder Alexey Istratov sprung a snap shot to the top corner in the 49th minute, that Salmiņš did excellently to touch onto the crossbar; there was simply no stopping Lius, that said, and he would claim his fourth goal of the day, from a delightful overhead attempt in the 62nd minute. It was of such quality that many home fans would grudgingly applaud it, intermixed with rare scattered boos for the Birds going four down.
This would however also mark the start of a quite remarkable turnaround for Grilled, as Sedät's uniformly-aged profile took its toll. Sure, the Birds were hardly spring chickens either, but the few years they had on their opponents would tell, all the more considering that Sedät had been compensating for being a man down from the outset. Direct running would start to work out against tiring legs, and it would be 3-5 in a flash as first
Bernie Egan and then
Chan Ze Han stole behind, with leftback Reggie Johnson looking particularly vulnerable now.
Sedät, recall, had no recourse to backups, and
Hilal Bakhtiar was not about to be too sporting here, as he finally swapped Chu out for
Wu Jinglong. It was an immediate upgrade too, as Wu appeared to know just how to deal with Lius - who was admittedly also mostly spent by this stage. The visitors barely knew what hit them as Bilal worked his way down the middle on Grilled's throw-in to restart, and although he found a brick wall eventually,
Douglas Carapaica would somehow find himself as the Birds' most advanced player, and his finish lived up to expectations.
All the momentum had to be with Grilled Birds by this time, and Nälkäiset Sedät could only compress themselves further, in hopes of making it through for what would remain a valuable victory. It was, alas for them, not to be. There was just no keeping the ravenous Birds players out by now, and
Moey Xin Seng would be felled for a free-kick in the 75th minute. It was quickly rotated from one flank to the other, right on cue for
Heng Dong Chu to tap home at the left post.
Bakhtiar twisted the screws further by putting
Bhavya Panigrahi on for Jeftić, but Sedät appeared to have held on for the draw, as they defended with all hands back. The Birds would finally take the lead for the first time in the second minute of injury time, as
Bilal Mohammad Harun thundered it in the general direction of the goal, for all he was worth. Swandana couldn't stop it fully, and that was game, set, match for Grilled.
