Initial Late Rally
Claro Assaults Subri
City side Initial D procured a credible draw against Grilled, after sinking to
a 1-5 defeat against Archlight the previous week. The Birds will however see
it as two points lost rather than one gained, after they conceded two soft
goals to let the home side back in.
Initial D contained a below-par Grilled side, which moreover had to support
debutant
Badrul Afzan bin Mustapa at rightback, where he covered for Zoltán
Árva. Badrul took his time to adapt to professional football, and Grilled had
nary a sniff at goal until the 25th minute, when Subri was blocked off by a
defender.
Rotteveel lined up the free kick, and spotted Javier Rodríguez scampering off
to the far post to position his wall. Always ready to take advantage, the
Dutchman silently passed the ball towards the gaping goalmouth, and the
referee accepted the goal despite fervent protests from the Spanish
goalkeeper.
Subri was then guilty of squandering a gilt-edged chance after great dribbling
down the middle by Branbilla, who kept his balance long enough to nudge the
ball forward to his teammate. That miss gave the hosts added heart, and German
midfielder Jörg Wientapper threw himself at a superb cross by Daniel-Alexandru
Duma to level matters.
The game suddenly exploded into action, as
Ciro Penati charged down the right, lost the ball, and was roundly booed for hurling it into the stands, an act that also got him booked. The jeers had barely died down when Penati intercepted the throw-in and set Han Kok free to score.
There was more drama to come as Initial D captain Miguel Claro saw red. Subri had just received the ball when Claro went straight through him from behind, not making any attempt to pull out. Goalie Javier Rodríguez had barely pulled on the armband when he had to scramble a still visibly-hurting Subri's shot off his line.
The Birds were no angels either, and
Nawaz Talib could have gone off too had he connected with his clumsy sliding tackle that Leeger hurdled. Badrul then became an unexpected scorer on his debut, as he happened to be in the perfect spot after a rebound went unclaimed by the Initial D defence.
Grilled let their guard down against the ten-men hosts, and Ilkka Peltonen sounded a warning by maneuvering down the left side brilliantly to make it 2-3 on 57 minutes. That sadly went unheeded, and Badrul was again exposed in the 74th minute, as he optimistically attempted to mark two players and ended up covering neither. Peltonen simply passed it on to Diethmar Leeger, who beat Valdir from a tight angle.
Initial D might have achieved a famous comeback win had Mu Erkang stayed on his feet in the very next minute after a dazzling run at Grilled's central defence, but he opted to go down at the slightest hint of a touch from Lik-Tsun, and ended up with a yellow card for his troubles.
