Semillero Dunking
Morte Blow
The penultimate round of the World Battle tournament saw Grilled Birds matched against Benin's Semillero de Benin - founded together with Argentina's Club Jorge Newbery Ctes - and similarly to most of the Birds' tourney experiences thus far, it went badly. The story wouldn't even be that original - a bright start, then a slow fade.
In fairness, this was a very strong Semillero side, boasting a trio of national midfielders, the crowning jewel of whom had to be the homegrown Cyril Agossou; between him, Moriac Legba, Sancho Gouda and Kossi Attikou, they had amassed a total of 90 caps at all levels despite being just 26 years of age, a remarkable tally given the ongoing preference for more-mature players on the international scene. To this, Belgian head coach Dominiek Van Sante had added talents such as Ukrainian leftback Innokentiy Zhosan, recently signed from FC Vellas for just over S$10 million.
It was therefore quite impressive that the Birds had them harried for the first ten minutes, with
Bilal Mohammad Harun and
Teo Chuan Yong in particular playing out of their boots. The hosts were perhaps a little too complacent and could not recover the initiative anytime soon, which led to a free-kick just outside the left edge of their penalty area in the eighth minute, after
Moey Xin Seng was fouled.
Bhavya Panigrahi weighed his options, and finally whipped it hard and low across the box - just what
Aw Keng Chuan had been betting on, as he nosed ahead of Legba to clip it home.
That was the opener after replays confirmed that Aw was onside, to the defensive midfielder's delight. Grilled would take heart from this breakthrough, and despite being nowhere near its prime, their midfield would bluster their way towards creating several more half-chances. The most notable of these went to
José Luiz Velho and then
Kalki Parvathaneni either side of the 25th minute, but neither fellow had calibrated their scoring boots today.
This was something of a let-off for Italian custodian Moris Succu, who had been at Kalki's mercy especially, and he kept his wits about him to execute a long and accurate throw out to Attikou on the left.
Paulino Trindade's inexperienced had him attempt to intercept unsuccessfully, giving Semillero the numerical advantage. Attikou drew Panigrahi to himself intelligently, and knocked it on for Augusto Nobre Morte to take in his stride to equalize.
Morte's goal would be a clear turning point in the game, as the Benin club's middle three re-grasped their pedigree. Agossou would take control with Teo no longer able to keep up with his movement, and Moey would be drawn into the fray in the 37th minute, as he charged in with a dangerous sliding tackle with the Number Eighteen having broken free. That merely threw Agossou off balance for a moment, however, and he would finish with a flourish right to the near bottom corner, leaving Moey to be hauled up for a yellow card retrospectively.
The underperforming Kalki would be taken off for
Lim An Keng at half-time, and while Lim undeniably brought fresh energy to the left flank, there was no pretence that he would be able to turn it around. And indeed, Semillero would set the pace straight from kick-off, and never relinquish it thereafter. They took just six minutes to extend their lead, with Legba nipping in as Stefano Di Tullio casually slipped the ball into his path.
Dimitris Germanakos had seen it coming, but there was no blocking Legba's merciless drive.
It then got messy for awhile, as the hosts lost themselves in possession, which had some of Grilled's players perhaps get stuck in slightly harder than absolutely necessary. Their opponents would soon retaliate in kind, resulting in Morte getting booked in the 65th minute, for laying his hands on Bilal, happily resolved after the fact.
José Luiz Velho would soon be carded too, if for the more-mundane act of loitering in front of a free-kick for far too long.
Velho would be persuaded to retreat to a suitable distance after his yellow, and the free-kick would be duly deflected off the defensive wall, and out for a corner. Di Tullio would curl that in invitingly for Agossou, but the Benin star's vicious plunging header would glide inches wide of the upright with Germanakos rooted. He evidently took that hard, from his expression after the near miss.
This was not to be the last chance for the hosts, who would be 4-1 up, some four minutes later. Morte would again be sharp coming in from the left, and his wondrous first touch would recall why he had been on the fringes of the São Tomé e Príncipe national youth setup. Sancho Gouda then thrashed a fine-enough volley high, with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul shortly afterwards coming on for Bilal to no great impact.
