SAORSA Shutout
Useful Drill
Northern Irish II.4 side SAORSA arrived evidently with a brief to defend, and Grilled Birds were only too pleased to help with their exercise, as they attacked throughout the ninety in today's World Battle matchup. It ended 3-0 Birds, but could very well have been more, what with
Gilbert Webb being unusually sprightly in ranging from the back.
The Scottish centreback was nothing if not in his element today, and though he was nominally up against Eli Davies, SAORSA's on-field tactics meant that he had plenty of capacity for pushing up when it suited him, with
Moey Xin Seng understanding enough to cover when needed. This was in evidence as early as the second minute, when Webb would find himself bearing down on the opposition goal, after some encouragement by
Shekar Kannan down the right. This trust was hardly misplaced, as only the crossbar - and barely at that - saved SAORSA from falling behind then.
SAORSA might have won the Northern Irish Sapphire Challenger Cup just two seasons past, but there was scarce remnant of the flair they had shown in defeating FC Brestenegg 4-1 in that final here. Richard Fry dropping to midfield might have had something to do with it, with him never quite looking comfortable with simply holding ground. This had the Birds bypass SAORSA's middle quite consistently, with Kannan forcing Jani Sääksjärvi into an acrobatic save in the ninth minute - and
Vikram Mudaliar finishing the job after retrieving the rebound.
There would be no time provided for SAORSA to get their heads together here, and in the very next minute,
Salah Kamel would throw himself into a tumble in the box, that the referee acknowledged as a foul. Up stepped Webb to send Sääksjärvi the other way with his run-up, and perhaps the opponents' biggest consolation here was that the 2-0 lead had Grilled cool off for the rest of the half.
Hilal Bakhtiar was satisfied enough to let this go, but the head coach would make to enliven the match again for the next half, as he threw
Bilal Mohammad Harun on to replace Moey. The Number Six would look close to back to his best from his rampages, and he would strike up a particularly keen understanding with
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud. That said, Abd Hadi's 58th minute chance was all his own, after he skinned rightback Gilbert Noel with a little feint - but hit it poorly.
Sääksjärvi would be the Northern Irish team's star for the day, as it so often fell to him to bail them out, when all else had failed. That was fairly often with SAORSA's three-man backline hardly up to the absorb-and-return that they were probably going for, and Sääksjärvi would have to get down quickly to stop from new Grilled captain
Chan Ze Han in the 63rd, and then up again in a jiffy to stuff the follow-up from
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud.
Heng Dong Chu would come in for
Salah Kamel in the 75th minute at left wing, and made an instant impact with his confident dribbling. With little riding on this contest, Heng would freely cut a swathe through much of SAORSA's defence in depth upon first receiving the ball, and his timely through ball to Chan, would set Abd Hadi up for the goal he had been seeking all along.
There would be a couple more notable chances to come, with Abd Hadi and
Douglas Carapaica drawing Sääksjärvi into more interaction, until
Radovan Jaška subbing on for
Kalki Parvathaneni marked the end of regular time.
