Kozmoz Big
Vega Alpha
This third round of the World Battle tourney had the Birds entertain Sarawak's Kozmoz Stars in another all-II.2 contest, with the Stars perennially on the verge of breaking through to the Liga Perdana, having spent all but a handful of their previous twenty seasons in Division Two. This campaign has not been kind to them, as they sit at the bottom of the table after just a single draw from their five league fixtures fsthus far, but they were nonetheless able to leverage some very clinical finishing, into a win against the Birds today.
The Stars boasted Norwegian target man Torbjørn Do as their captain in a sturdy 5-4-1, that aimed to make the most of homegrown wing veterans Lai Kiong Ho and Rasyid Ilham Farizul, to feed their surges through the middle. This was a simple and yet quite effective tack, which however depended on Grilled committing themselves.
Gústav Thoroddsen would boss the early going as his movement spread panic amongst the opposition defenders, and many felt Portuguese goalie Nando Dias fortunate to stay on, much less not concede a penalty, when he seemed to wipe out both man and ball in the ninth minute.
The referee was more of the old-fashioned sort who believed in goalkeeper privilege, so it seemed, and the match went on with Argentine sweeper Juan De Dios Vega being a lot more decisive at the other end as compared to his own. Nobody quite knew what to make of him sprinting in some fifty yards ahead of his designated post in the fifteenth minute, but the extra man was just what Michael Chikawe wanted, and the quick-thinking Tanzanian playmaker played it into Vega's path - and the Argentine would not disappoint with a confident grounder.
Grilled were not unduly concerned yet, all the more when
Mohd Marzuki Khairul spotted Dias out of position in the 24th minute and punished him with a wonderfully-precise drive, but the Birds were beaten back once more as Lai crossed deep for Rasyid four minutes on, for a delightfully first-time volley.
Brian Reddy attempted the immediate response, but Grilled would get caught on the goal kick instead. It was finally Torbjørn Do's turn to show what he could do as the Stars took their time on setting up their free-kick, which came off perfectly with the striker bumping
Chad Thach aside in a bad mismatch, to score.
That made it 3-1 entering the second half, which had an off-colour Thach replaced by
Hwang Teck Fu, in what proved to be a wise decision by the Birds' head coach. Hwang was far more creative against Swiss midfielder Luc Sarault, and nearly recorded a goal for himself just three minutes after coming on, as Reddy sought him out from one of his mesmerizing dribbles on the right wing. Hwang turned Butch Everist neatly to allow the ball to run across him, but Vega was watching and waiting, and pounced immediately to clear.
Still, Grilled were far better than they had been before, and their wing production in particular was getting cranked up. This had the secondary effect of attracting attention away from
Gústav Thoroddsen, much to the forward's delight. For once, a quick switch back into the middle happened before anyone had latched back onto the Icelander, and Thoroddsen would only need those extra few seconds, to line up an unstoppable shot past Dias.
Chia Kwang Tse nearly followed up with an instant equalizer on
Federico Parada's left-sided counter charge from kick-off, only to miss badly. It would take the former Bolivian youth international himself to level it up twenty minutes later, after relentless spreading of the play by Grilled. Reddy would finally free himself against recent Malaysian U-20 fullback Toh Ze Yun - who frankly had done quite well today - then, and while two defenders kept Thoroddsen from attacking the cross, that still left Parada at the far post to convert.
Alas, that was as far as the Birds got, and after Chia received the only yellow card of the game for what was admittedly a very late tackle on Sarault, Vega would secure the winner on a textbook counter. Grilled had gotten far too complacent about having discouraged their opponents from venturing by then, and absolutely did not count on just how swiftly Kozmoz could turn defence into offense.