Bengals Pull Through
Thick Lipp
Bangladesh II.1 challengers Munich Bengal Tigers, affiliates of Germany's Masters of Disasters, edged the Birds in the opening round of the Dominion International Cup tournament. Still pushing hard for their first trip to the national Premier League, Polish captain-coach Dariusz Brózda's team would prove exceedingly well-balanced, as they drew level with a marauding Birds side twice, before racing clear.
Having sustained but a single league loss all season, Brózda would switch up the left wing for today, leaving veteran Anwar Abdullah out for the younger - and faster - Mehmud Salim. This was likely with a view to forming a speedy tandem with Indonesian frontman Baginda Surbakti, with Costa Rican national team hopeful Alfredo Serrano switching it up with Enamul Moez on the other flank as needed.
Grilled Birds would shoot off the starting blocks with great rapidity for all of the Bengals' preparations, as the front three of
Lim An Keng,
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Gandhik Chitre would start drawing comparisons to past trinities such as Mohd Safri, Tian and Chow, or Chan, Moey and Kalki. Certainly, the combination they pulled off in the ninth minute - that had Lim swivel to the outside and put Marzuki through, before Chitre scored off Gonzalo Dávila's reaction stop - would have been worthy of any of those previous trios.
The Birds were at their flying best about now, with it being all Brózda could do to have his defence stand firm. Notably, he refused to pull his midfield deeper, probably in the hopes of hitting back on the counter, but this nearly cost them a second goal in the 17th minute. San Marino leftback Marco Piva couldn't keep up with
Chad Thach's drifting run inside, and
Gandhik Chitre's sharp grounder required Dávila to fling himself across goal for the save.
It would be a different story for the next half, as Grilled's tempo would turn out to be unsustainable. They would try to revert to a slower possession-based game, only to find the Bengals uncooperative. Now the ones getting rushed,
Ha Qicai would find himself confused by Moez and Serrano crossing paths on the dribble, and this allowed Estonian Number Nine Siim Lipp to break through for the equalizer, 52 minutes in.
There would be a rapid exchange of goals coming, as the Birds' passing found some purchase seven minutes later.
Hwang Teck Fu appeared to be going nowhere as he was closed down by former Bangladesh youth international Rao Din, but he clipped it onwards for
Chia Kwang Tse, who burst past Aminul Fahmid to make it 2-1.
Tian Yonghang took the opportunity to switch
Hong Kang Leong on for
Aw Keng Chuan, only for Hong to be caught out of position as Enamul Moez scored straightaway, from Brózda's early cross.
This would kickstart the Bengals' best stretch of the match, as they rapidly forced Grilled Birds onto the ropes with a vigour as yet undisplayed previously. Serrano was really beginning to work the midfield as he threatened both to the left and the right with equal facility, which saw the Grilled defensive effort break down after awhile.
Dimitris Germanakos bailed them out in the 70th minute as Serrano raced through unopposed, but there would be no preventing Lipp from giving his side the lead three minutes later, as he lobbed Germanakos beautifully from ten yards.
A frantic few minutes followed as Grilled sensed the match slipping away from them, and so it did as Spike Matlis flew in amongst a mass of bodies to head Moez' inviting cross home, three minutes after Lipp's second goal. This would be instantly answered by
Chia Kwang Tse's own supporting run, but that was as far as Grilled got, with
Chan Ze Han unable to do anything after being subbed in for
Gandhik Chitre for the final five minutes.
