Heretics Banished
Baena Inquisition
Grilled Birds advanced from Group J of the Pacific Cup, after their 3-0 taming of Peruvian IV.28 representatives Malleus hereticorum, who had enjoyed no luck thus far in this tournament. Much of this would have to be attributed to a defiant
Enrique Baena, who set aside his admonishment by head coach
Tian Yonghang, to run the right wing ragged in an exceptional link-up with
Chan Ze Han.
All concerned knew very much what they had to do - Malleus merely needed to avoid defeat to go through, while the Birds would need a victory, while hoping that Malaysian Tigers would not go easy on Santa's Little Elves, to overturn a six-goal deficit. It was not that Malleus were such easy pickings either, with 20 year-old skipper Gerardo Gómez for example an acknowledged rising star in the national scene. Ksawery Zyśko and Arjang Rokhpour - of the same age - were also coming along well, as Iranian manager Pasha Hajati sought to have an entire generation develop together.
An admirable philosophy, no doubt, but perhaps not quite adequate against a Grilled team hungering for a win by any means. The Peruvian side had not yet settled when the Birds assaulted the left flank lead by
Teo Chuan Yong, who brought
Chad Thach into play, before knocking it towards where he wanted
José Luiz Velho to be. The Brazilian forward had read Teo's intent well, and made his move before Estonian centreback Almar Lest, which left him with an unchallenged finish for 1-0.
Lest was definitely having a bad day as he struggled against keeping tabs on the Birds' attackers, but he would make some contributions too, as in the tenth minute when his rump deflected what looked like an on-target lob from Velho.
Enrique Baena would be dangerous if inconsistent about this point, and warning lights flashed when he nearly engaged Venezuelan counterpart Félix Rocha in a scuffle, which got him a yellow card - and disapproving looks from the coaching staff in the dugout.
Baena would hearteningly keep his temper under tabs, and proceeded to get on with the business at hand. Grilled maintained their command of the proceedings, and it would be Malleus to take the next booking, for Henryk Nierychło's shirt-tugging on Baena.
Chad Thach's effort from the free-kick would be saved spectacularly by Finnish goalie Ville Muikku, who however had no answer to Baena's own flourish and chip, five minutes later.
The Spanish winger only grew in confidence over the course of the game, and it would soon become Rocha's full-time job to track Baena, styming his own offensive output. Even this would not always be enough, however, as Baena continued terrorizing his way down the right with his willingness to take anyone one. This eventually produced an assist in the 55th minute, when he abruptly cut into the inside, and slipped it through for Chan's attention.
With news that Malaysian Tigers were 4-0 up in the other fixture too, the Birds knew that they had done enough - if nothing changed. Their qualification remained on the brink, however, and thus it was not surprising that they kept gunning for a fourth, with
Bhavya Panigrahi spraying it wide as they attacked from their first possession after the restart. This urgency would be reduced somewhat once it became known that the Tigers had run their lead up to six in the meantime, which left Grilled in a far more comfortable position.
This was perhaps just as well, from how they missed a bunch of eminently-convertible chances from then on, with Chan maybe the biggest offender. Before that, Baena had gone off reluctantly for
Paulino Trindade, having just won another free-kick for the Birds two minutes ago. That substitution took most of Grilled's fire away, though
Kalki Parvathaneni did exhibit some nice touches, after replacing Velho with ten minutes to go.
