Finally Abated
Birds Battle Bravely
Grilled Birds' run in The Global Trophy might have been stopped by Oceanian second divisioners F.C Rosy Abate in the quarterfinals, but few could have begrudged them much in taking a clearly superior team to extra time. The Birds were even ahead as late as the 78th minute, but it would really have been an injustice had Abate not won through.
It was
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan's turn to stay away after a successful friendly debut, as
Damian Hutter was restored to the starting lineup to partner
Bhavya Panigrahi against the twin threats of Víctor Juan Escayola and Nathan Windhaber, both difficult customers. Escayola would drag the ball around him on his first control to allow Dobrogniew Chilimoniuk to slip behind in just the second minute, and only a very courageous rush from
Dimitris Germanakos kept the Polish winger from profiting.
The match would be halted for awhile as the Grilled goalkeeper got laid out on the grass after taking the shot in his face, but he would recover soon enough. The Birds were having real trouble against Abate's former youth international Mounir Houri here, with
Kalki Parvathaneni finding it a chore to stay with the 31 year-old. Kalki's true talents lay elsewhere, though, as he demonstrated with an incisive sprint through to put it away, eight minutes in.
This had been entirely against the grain, mind, and the Abate fans could not have expected much more from their players' efforts after going behind. Captain and former Iraqi U-20 star Diyar Aiwan would personally spearhead several attacks after being partly at fault for not closing Kalki down, and Grilled would be fortunate to get through a barrage from the Aussies - until the 35th minute, at least. Then, Escayola would finally have the beating of Panigrahi in a straight duel, and he bent it around Germanakos with great assurance.
A goal was all Abate needed to clear the way for victory, or so it felt, but some dogged mass defending by the Grilled team stalled them to half-time, albeit in a somewhat ugly fashion.
Chia Kwang Tse entered for Kalki, and
Enrique Baena for Lim Ah Keng for the second half, with the Birds having benefitted more from the break, from how their opponents lost some of their prior coordination. It wasn't that much of a difference, however, with Houri still calling most all of the shots.
The Birds remained unusually deadly - or alternatively, lucky - the handful of times they got the ball in a scoring position, as happened for them in the 58th minute.
Paulino Trindade had been outclassed by Finnish counterpart Ville Jokikokko on the left, but one cross flying through into Abate's penalty area turned out to be enough. Chia had been a proficient header of the ball in the juniors, and from how he hung in the air to ping it past Swiss goalie Sigi Nadeau, he should have what it takes in the big leagues too.
Chia definitely enjoyed that as he whirled straight for the Grilled fan section to celebrate, but truth be told, Grilled were living very dangerously still. Their best opportunity to steal the game was probably when Panigrahi looped it at goal in the 71st minute, but that merely brushed the crossbar. Abate, having survived, were in a hurry now, and Ville Jokikokko skipped past
Aw Keng Chuan after having his initial free-kick blocked, to assist Nathan Windhaber for another equalizer.
Aw would not escape a booking for the initial transgression, and Abate would then go ahead for the first time, with eight minutes left in the game. The referee was in a good position to inspect
Bilal Mohammad Harun's tussle with Nùng Văn Anh in the box, and judged that Bilal had been just a bit too handsy there. Aiwan would walk the ball to the penalty spot, and he gave Germanakos no chance with a solid, no-frills thump to the bottom left.
While the result would probably have been okay with
Tian Yonghang, the head coach nevertheless made to play his final card, as he sent
Teo Chuan Yong on for
Moey Xin Seng. Teo had not quite held down a regular spot after a terrible loss of form, but he would take just three minutes to save the match today. Aw would spark a slick series of five passes that took it to Grilled's new point man, and Teo would smack it straight into the net, making it 3-3.
Dimitris Germanakos was next to do his part as he flung out a stiff right fist to deny Thomas Flint an automatic winner, as the Birds then muddled their way to full-time. This was as far as they would get as a unit, however, with their veterans no longer able to hide their lack of fitness. Abate's pressure would gain them a free-kick in the 95th minute, and Aiwan would slide a pass across to Nùng for a smooth one-touch finish. Any final hopes were then flushed aside, as Escayola put it beyond all doubt.
