Mimi Reunion
Panigrahi Angst
Twenty seasons after their friendly in Hong Kong that Love Mimi Football Club won 6-1, they would play Grilled Birds again in the World Battle tournament - and relatively seriously at that. The gap would not be as large today, with the Birds going as far as to take the lead against them in the 70th minute; sadly, this would soon be overturned as their Belgian star forward Nicolas Vandevenne mobilized himself.
Love Mimi FC's tradition of excellence had continued since that last meeting, with five 1st Division League titles and five Hong Kong Cups captured, and they are currently leading the charge to yet another league title with ten points after four games. Grilled head coach
Hilal Bakhtiar, an unused substitute for the Birds then, was under no illusions that they would be favoured to win this. Much of the pre-match talk had centered over whether
Shekar Kannan would make a first appearance, but it transpired that the new signing had not travelled with the squad.
Mimi had built their team around national representatives Yim Youyang and Pun Yuanfeng in midfield, with former Cuban international Juan Luis Marrufo complementing them as a steady hand sitting slightly behind. The Mimi captain was never a shrinking violet when his turn came to attack, though, as was the case in the fourth minute, with Đulaga Klindo pushing past makeshift left winger
Sølve Lunde.
Douglas Carapaica chose to go with Vandevenne, which gave Marrufo just about enough room to juke
Bilal Mohammad Harun, and get a fine strike off.
Jānis Salmiņš will feel disappointed in himself for not stopping that, granted, but at least his teammates wouldn't take time off to mope. The bulk of the half after that would be a tense standoff broken up by bursts of redoubled activity, as the two formidable midfield units bit into each other. Progress was difficult for the Birds, who however almost put
Moey Xin Seng through in the 24th minute. Former Ukraine national fullback Sergiy Fateev tried a sly shirt tug then, but it was spotted by the linesman, and resulted in the game's only yellow card.
It would all come to head from the 40th minute onwards, as Moey found himself receiving the ball on the right touchline. Usually the receiver in such circumstances, the Grilled skipper would turn supplier instead, as he gave the now-cautious Fateev a bit of a runaround near the corner flag, before pumping a cross deep to the back post. Dorel Butănescu seemed to have gotten a touch, but not enough to keep
Chan Ze Han from meeting it solidly for 1-1.
This finally lent a sense of real urgency to the contest that had not been fully present before, and the half would conclude with a bang. Mimi struck first once again, as Pun made a great dribble and disguised it for Hermínio Augusto Silva, who duly scooped his lob onto the bar; no problem, as Nicolas Vandevenne converted the putback on the volley. Not to be outdone,
Moey Xin Seng would pull away from Marrufo from the restart, as he capped an incredible forty-five minutes with a cool low finish beyond Irish custodian Ernest Walsh.
There would be plenty of respect going around as the teams retired for half-time, and it perhaps extended for too long into the second half, with next to nothing of note happening until about the 70th minute. Yim was edging it over whoever came up against him in the middle, but not by very much. It was getting more than a little boring when Bakhtiar made his move, and ordered a double substitution of
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud and
Kalki Parvathaneni on, for Kamel and Lunde.
Well, this certainly got the game going immediately, as Abd Hadi drew a foul out of Silva on the right wing. To be fair, there didn't seem much in it, but coordinated runs from
Chan Ze Han and
Teo Chuan Yong had the Mimi defenders distracted enough, that they neglected to track Bilal storming the back door. Even that wouldn't be the Birds' actual threat, as it turned out, with
Douglas Carapaica appearing out of the blue, to shimmy it past Walsh to give Grilled the lead for the first time.
Bakhtiar really enjoyed that goal from how he pumped his fists on the touchlines, but Grilled's inability to hold the line would be their downfall once more. Abd Hadi may be many things, but a tenacious defender he is generally not. Florin Bâgiu would be in the clear once he executed a successful overlap, and no-one picked Nicolas Vandevenne's accompanying dash towards that side in time. Salmiņš would try to cut the pass out, but the Belgian got a foot in to redirect the equalizer home.
The Birds were still stunned when Pun put Mimi right back into the lead with an understated drive to the bottom right corner, though Grilled did display tremendous spirit in the final ten minutes, to batter their opponents every which way.
Bhavya Panigrahi had two great efforts from free-kicks, but the first rocked the upright, while Walsh saved the second. In between, Marrufo could have closed it for Mimi, but Salmiņš' lightning reaction extended Grilled's hopes for a little longer.
