Keramika Crumple
Chu Rolls Back Years
Grilled Birds triumphed 4-1 over Belarus II.1 and former Sapphire Challenger Cup winners FC Keramika in their World Battle clash today, held despite the geopolitical clouds roiling the region recently. It would be the Birds' turn to gain a man advantage as the hosts elected to put out a 5-1-3, with Mongolian head coach Qutugh Eiji fielding himself as part of the frontline. The team would be decently strong other than that, with Iranian star Hami Binafard starting, and Finnish midfielder Aapo Sinko demonstrating great fighting spirit against insurmountable odds.
They remained insurmountable, none the less, especially with so many of the Grilled oldies playing as if this were their final outing, as well it could be. Other than Chan, Moey and Teo, all the others had been deemed surplus to requirements, with the club merely holding out for suitable offers. From this, one understood if they wished to make their last games memorable, and for the soon-to-be 37 year-old
Chu Xin Lee, Tian might yet withdraw his decision on selling, from what Chu put out today.
Always one of the more-unknown factors in whichever sides he has featured in, Chu would be at his mind-boggling best today.
Chan Ze Han did the initial work in holding out for a corner kick against Kajetan Hernik right before the 20th minute, which had
Bhavya Panigrahi bend it in to the far post. Chu had seen it coming, and timed his leap exactly to bring the ball down for his teammates to contest.
Moey Xin Seng emerged victorious there, as he survived a painful-looking hack at his shins, to bang it strongly into the back of the net.
Keramika would make this a very mobile game nevertheless as they bypassed midfield at the first opportunity, and much would hinge on the movement of their front three, and how accurate the long balls hit to them with some frequency were.
Salah Kamel would oft get stuck on the left side against Keramika's swarming press, and he would be dispossessed by former national U-20 wingback Pavel Babouka about the 37th minute. It was all Alessandro Luperto could do to get on the end of the through ball, though, and he wouldn't bother countryman
Manuel Vadalà unduly with the finish.
It was end-to-end now, and Chu would polish off the next attack by himself, as the Keramika backline buckled on their left side.
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud plugged one high over Paco Brinkman next, before the hosts got one back, with Venezuelan national superstar Eric Cabello sending it to Eiji's feet, from over sixty yards. That was as pinpoint a delivery as one could have asked for, heading into two minutes of added time that saw no less than four clear attempts on goal, divided equally between the teams.
If the Birds were the favourites to take it from here, they were not all that eager to show it, so it seemed, with them mostly happy with protecting possession in their own half. It got so bad at times that
Aw Keng Chuan would try to bring it up by himself, but things would turn more lively with a tired
Kalki Parvathaneni replaced by
Vikram Mudaliar for the final twenty minutes. That substitution saw Vania Hapau carded in the immediate aftermath, as he felled
Teo Chuan Yong in contesting the game-restarting throw-in.
Mudaliar's introduction had Grilled battering at the doors, with the recovering Number Nine desiring to put himself on the market, so so it seemed. He would be active in creating openings for his teammates, and laid the ball out for a good old-fashioned raking from
Bilal Mohammad Harun in the 77th, that flew inches over. A few minutes later, Chu would insert himself back in the spectators' consciousness with a woodwork-rocking overhead kick, followed by a rather more staid - and successful - attempt linking up with
Chan Ze Han.
Injury time would see plenty of excitement again, with
Prokop Mottl and
Radovan Jaška having bags of energy to burn; in the end, a breakdown in midfield by Grilled turned to their advantage, as Keramika committed far too heavily in attempting to score. Mudaliar would be left with a one-on-one against Hapau when it came back to him, and didn't have much trouble in shaking free of the homegrown defender, before casually chipping it past Brinkman.
