Old Folks Overcome
Abd Hadi Eager
The final World Battle fixture for the season had the Birds come up against Chinese II.2 challengers laojiadui, and the Shanghai powerhouse would nick it in injury time. As with Grilled, laojiadui have been rebuilding their squad with the title out of reach, and had just splurged S$11 million for highly-touted German teenage goalkeeper Joshua Reißmüller, and S$4.8 million for Canadian veteran defensive midfielder Paolo Gilardino, these couple of days. Neither would be considered today as they mirrored the Birds' tactics, however, and it would be an attacking feast for the eyes - and a defensive shambles.
Led out by captain and former national forward Guan Minlong, laojiadui would identify
Teo Chuan Yong as the man to shut down, with
Chan Ze Han escaping major attention for once. This might not have been entirely unjustified, actually, and with Wei Qunran making it his business to get into Teo's face, Grilled's supply lines were indeed disrupted. With this, laojiadui would be the ones asking questions, and
Lau Chu Soon learnt a hard lesson when he got picked off by Nie Bingyi in the eleventh minute. Lau was hoping for a foul to be called, but would instead watch whilst splayed out on the grass, as Nie slotted it past
Manuel Vadalà.
Vadalà had his work cut out for him, as he had to stay alert against Peng Yongxuan's on-point rocket from the left, as laojiadui continued going in hard. That would be but a momentary respite, as Peng left
Bilal Mohammad Harun in his wake once more, with a fleet-footed drive that brooked no resistance. He left nothing to chance with the finish either, putting it between the goalkeeper's legs.
As impressive as they seemed going forward, this laojiadui team were vulnerable at the back too, something that
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud was never going to overlook. A slight misstep by Czech Number Eight Bohumil Schmied, and it was 2-1 as Abd Hadi darted past him in reaction. Grilled Birds were then level by the 25th minute, as
Aw Keng Chuan put himself in just the right spot, to invite an assist from
Kalki Parvathaneni - he has certainly distinguishing himself more than Lau for now, if nothing else.
That wasn't the end of it for the Birds either, and the goals continued flowing, with their opponents being entirely too confident in pushing back at full strength. Ecuador playmaker Pocho Ibarra would be forced back from Grilled's penalty area almost to the halfway line, and when he finally reluctantly tried to recycle the ball, it would be intercepted by
Moey Xin Seng, and sent straight to Abd Hadi for a most direct counterattacking goal.
Chan Ze Han could hardly be left out, and a neat baiting of increasingly-flustered laojiadui goalie Alejandro Noboa, would leave him with an easy fourth for Grilled.
This was certainly not what the home support were expecting after their turbocharged start, and with the underperforming Lau replaced by
Gilbert Webb for the second half, it looked as if Grilled might run away with it - for all of four minutes. Instead, the pendulum took another swing, and it was laojiadui's turn to erase a lead. Thorbjørn Flejsborg thundered from the back for the final shove their attack needed in the 49th, and three minutes later, Austrian winger Róbert Budai levelled as the Birds' left flank collapsed under their sustained pressure.
With it all back to zero, the match took on a more deliberate and calculating nature. Although neither side were still great at defence, they did put somewhat more effort into it, and easy gimmes such as a few that had gone in previously, were not about to happen again. It would take efforts such as Bilal's monstrous twenty-yarder in the 61st minute, or Nie's deflected reply two minutes later, to make an impact.
Grilled were actually in the ascendacy at this point, with the Chinese team losing their cohesiveness for some minutes. However, they would be the ones to reach six goals first against the run of play, as Budai continued being a nuisance down the right. Even when pressed into an early cross, he found his mark with startling accuracy, helped by Ibarra's nerveless volley. The Birds were not without their own heroes either, and Abd Hadi would again zero in on another defensive mix-up the very next minute, for six-all.
Given that twelve goals had been scored in the last eighty minutes, the odds were on a winner in the remaining ten, and the issue was who would be the one to find it. Truthfully, the Birds were very much in the seach after Budai lashed a hurried volley well wide in the 81st, and they would even give
Chad Thach the opportunity to catapult himself into the limelight, with Chan leaving in favour of the newbie with four added minutes on the lock. Sadly, it would be Budai to clinch it instead, as
Manuel Vadalà let the Austrian's grounder slip through his fingers.
