Mzzls' Minute
Hilario Has Fun
Grilled Birds' long-awaited return to the World Battle tournament would not end in a win for them, but this 2-3 defeat to Dutch II.2 leaders Mzzls United remained a fine result under the circumstances. The visitors in blue and yellow were clearly some ways ahead of the Birds from their defensive prowess alone, and although Grilled shook them through some individual magic, they could not last the distance.
Built about 31 year-old local favourite Arno Zeijlemaker, this Mzzls side is currently making a serious push for the Eredivisie and national honours, as was evident from their lineup; packed with quality at every position and skippered by another academy hero in Glen Tsai A Woen, the marquee player nonetheless had to be Chilean import Hilario Burgoa, who was every inch the classic centre forward, and well worth the S$11.5 million to secure him from Bonvallet FC.
Grilled on the contrary had just divested themselves of much of their firepower, which left Icelandic international
Gústav Thoroddsen with non-specialist support in
Gandhik Chitre and
Lim An Keng. Or so that was how the commentators had it, but they would have to eat their words pretty quickly -
Chia Kwang Tse walked the ball up slowly after kick-off, and a simple pass to Lim would see him have a crack from five yards outside the box, and what a strike it was! Hungarian goalie Ferenc Berbás could be forgiven for not expecting that from the third touch of the match, as it dipped hard into his far bottom corner.
Most of the Mzzls could hardly believe it either as the Grilled players embarked upon some wild celebrations, and it took longer than usual for the referee to shepherd all of them back for the restart. The Dutch team would resume with slow build-ups, one of which carved Grilled up for Maciej Rajtar to have a try, in the 15th minute.
Dimitris Germanakos managed to tip the accurate but insufficiently-pacy effort around the post, and the corner came to naught.
It was then two for Grilled somewhat against expectations, what with the opposition backline having comfortably dealt with what the Birds had to offer, much of that since Thoroddsen was doing all the work. Still,
Gandhik Chitre's rawness would ironically help him score, as he cut to the outside when leaving it for Thoroddsen was the obvious choice. Mzzls would respond swiftly this time, as they sent it long from kick-off, and Hilario Burgoa elbowed
Ha Qicai out of the way for a thumping header.
The direct approach having paid off, Mzzls would favour it more and more as the game went on, if not to immediate effect. Grilled about held on largely by trying to keep it in the opposition half as much as possible, even if
Brian Reddy and
Federico Parada weren't having much joy against the fullbacks. Reddy for one came off second best against his direct competition, as Turkish wingback Şaban Sezgen read him like a book, and not a very verbose one at that.
Still, Mzzls weren't making much for themselves either, and it would only get better for them once Aart Valstar came on for Sjoerd van Spanje in the middle. Valstar was very obviously more on Zeijlemaker's wavelength, and Grilled were no longer able to hold properly.
Chad Thach was left trailing as Valstar made a strong push forward in the 70th minute, and a nifty transfer over to Swiss striker Mischa Gaßmann led to an easy equalizer.
The Birds were really struggling by now, with Chia starting to get dumped on by Zeijlemaker in midfield, and they would go from trying to add to their admittedly-fortunate lead, to simply wanting to protect a point. That was harder than it might have been thought to be, and Glen Tsai A Woen had two serious attempts at the winner, first by lobbing a neat volley onto the crossbar in the 76th minute. Then, after Timoteo Enrique Torres Herzog's arrival for Maciej Rajtar, Glen whizzed down the middle with
Aw Keng Chuan holding off on the tackle, and only quick hands from
Dimitris Germanakos kept Grilled afloat.
Grilled might have thought that they had survived, as they resorted to booting the ball out of play as much as they could, what with only a single minute of injury time provided for some reason. There would be a final twist in this tale, though, as Hilario Burgoa snuck through in what would be the last play of the match, and slipped it beyond Germanakos with a subtle toepoke.