A Bunch Of AVK
Chia From The Back
Grilled Birds' opening fixture in the whimsically-named "Never trust in banana" TOURNAMENT had them up against some very serious competition in Italian VI.87 side AVK Football Club, and the Bolognese would very nearly get one over a careless Birds XI on the back of their classic counterattacking tactics, only to be hauled level through some sheer willpower on the Birds end.
The regular tourney participants had just seen Chile's KKO F.C. off 2-3 in The Outsiders league, and whatever else might be said about their approach, it was certainly well-suited to a busy schedule. Grilled had of course just beaten down a tpyers side employing much the same ideas, but there was a vast difference in quality of execution going on here. Indeed, AVK were more than capable of taking the initiative when they had to, as when Paraguayan right winger Roberto Alviso lost
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan and bent it right to Benito Bazoli for their first goal, in the sixth minute.
There was no defending that, as
Ha Qicai tried to assure
Dimitris Germanakos after the fact, as the Birds worked doubly hard to get their own. They were somewhat unlucky not to have equalized by the 25th, with both
Evandro La Face and
Gústav Thoroddsen coming within five yards of Bruno Lo Fria's goalmouth, only to be pushed away by a mass of bodies - with Floreal Mina booked while pressing from the front. Worse, Alviso then doubled AVK's lead as they broke swiftly once Thoroddsen had it taken from him for once, as Ferzan was again unable to read the opposing winger's unorthodox movements.
Well, the Iceman was not about to take that humiliation quietly, and he would answer in kind at the very next asking; AVK were perhaps playing a little too loose having achieved a two-goal cushion, which was to be their undoing as
Chad Thach hounded Bazoli off the ball in midfield. There still wasn't much space to be had as the Italians retreated in very composed fashion, but Thoroddsen was a one-man wrecking ball when he was of a mind to, and he made an absolute joke of AVK's numbers once he got up to speed inside the box.
That shook AVK some, and they would only narrowly escape
Chia Kwang Tse levelling soon after the restart, with the midfielder also provided a yard too much space in the penalty area. Bruno Lo Fria was too good a leader to leave his team vulnerable for much longer, however, and a few well-placed orders would see AVK cruise to half-time.
Phua Ming Xin worked hard to get his shot on in the 53rd, but instead it would be returned with interest by Emiliano Tonati once the counter got underway.
Phua was made of stern stuff too, and he would admirably reprise the example that Thoroddsen had set, in simply trying again. Ferzan was more than willing to assist in running interference, and with Dieuwe Eloot duly distracted, Phua's finish was good this time. AVK kept on trucking, though, and after
Brian Reddy was forced into giving up a calculated yellow card in the 60th minute, they went two up for a third time with Marco Ammazzalorso bursting past
Ha Qicai with his pure, unadulterated acceleration.
Other head coaches might have thrown in the towel at that, but not
Tian Yonghang. Having identified
Chad Thach as having given it his all early, he would take the Number Twenty-Two off for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul, who made an immediate impact with his eager running. The results were not immediately seen, but the Birds would gradually press ever deeper into AVK's half. Ha sounded the alarm with a brilliant lob that came within inches 82 minutes in, with Benito Bazoli then booked for deliberate timewasting.
Sensing that AVK were finally on the ropes, Tian's next sub had
Orest Tokarz on for the overworked
Evandro La Face, and this bore fruit instantly; with his first touch, Tokarz trapped
Lim An Keng's forward pass dead while holding off Oldar Hêmin with an almost contemptuous ease, and the Swedish centreback was not able to do anything against Tokarz's raw power, before he had bulged the net.
There was very little time left to save the match regardless, and all eyes would soon turn to the fourth official, who displayed just three minutes of stoppage time on his electronic board. This felt like the Birds were being shortchanged, what with all the time the ball had spent out of bounds in this second half, but it turned out that one minute was all that was needed for
Chia Kwang Tse to sweep in from the left side.
