Ghost Resistance
A Dank End
Grilled Birds' "Never trust in banana" TOURNAMENT progress hit a sandbank, as they failed to grab full points against Swiss Division Five participants FC Ghost, in a fixture that they should have taken nine out of ten tries. The Ghosts never wavered in their primary strategy of all-out pressing and playing for time, and this was enough to keep them abreast with the Birds.
Having defeated Blu Eagle and drawn AVK Football Club and TSV Ottobrunn Fussball, FC Ghost were yet to be beaten in this competition, and head coach Édouard Hervé's tactical decisiveness had to have a huge part to play here. His flexible 3-5-2 was wide in defence with Alfred Adank and Baruch Abazon effectively halting opposing wingers, and with midfielders Grégoire Sorgen and Khana Salas ever prepared to fall back, it could switch to a 5-3-2 in an instant.
Despite that, Grilled remained a cut above, and the early going suggested that they could outmaneuver the Ghosts regardless - until the seventh minute, when
Aw Keng Chuan's relative lack of pace was cruelly exposed. This was one of Slovakian Number Eleven Silvan Suna's first touches on the ball, as Eduard Denzler casually stroked it across to him, but it was accompanied by a nitro-boosted surge that took him away from Aw in one fell stroke.
Dimitris Germanakos tried to close in response, but Suna finished with his next step.
Frustratingly, the Ghosts' press proved more difficult for Grilled to deal with than might have been imagined, as they demonstrated themselves to be extremely adept in covering each others' gaps. All
Joe Reece could do was work himself into an impossibly tight angle in the 24th minute, and the Birds would only equalize in the 36th after
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan's wild strike came off Salas and
Orest Tokarz seemingly simultaneously, wrongfooting Timon Käser. The goal was eventually awarded to the latter, who had to reason to protest.
It would still be the Ghosts who held the lead at half-time as Silvan Suna drew a bead after some wonderful approach work by Niko Keskinen on the right, and the following impatience did not help Grilled in the least, as they kept failing to link up at the critical movement. This sorry state of affairs lasted until the 63rd minute, when it all finally came together down the centre.
Chia Kwang Tse executed an impeccable cross run together with
Gústav Thoroddsen to lose his marker, and
Lim An Keng didn't pass up the obvious assist.
With twenty minutes remaining,
Tian Yonghang would shake things up in an effort to take Grilled over the line, which had
Evandro La Face and
Hwang Teck Fu enter for Tokarz and Chia. La Face's mutual understanding with
Gústav Thoroddsen was soon manifest, as he opened up space for the Icelander like nothing before. After raking one across the crossbar with Käser rooted, Thoroddsen went for the chip four minutes later, and the Birds were finally ahead!
Thoroddsen must have thought the result safe as he departed smiling for
Phua Ming Xin in the 85th minute, what with Grilled controlling possession handily by then. A single mistake would ruin it all, unfortunately, as
Lim An Keng tried to wriggle his way out of a tight situation as stoppage time began. The gamble didn't come off as he got stripped of the ball just outside his own box, and Ghosts captain Alfred Adank lashed it in from the left.
