Ville Dominate
Warrior Spirit
Four-time English Premier winners Ville Warriors had their heritage shine through today, as they ejected Grilled Birds from the Dominion International Cup with a 6-1 group stage win. The Birds were not favoured to take this game, to put it mildly, and their shading the possession statistics overall could be regarded as a moral victory of sorts. Unfortunately, it was a total mismatch otherwise.
Italian head coach Giacomo Pagnoncelli had just gotten the Warriors back to the second division after two straight III.5 titles and a Craig Wozniak Cup immediately before that, which was a testament to the club's long-term strategy of investing heavily in quality. 28 year-old Canadian Charles Marcil, their latest big buy, would start in central midfield, but he was hardly the centrepiece of a star-studded lineup. English national forward Richie Crawley probably had more claim to that, with Dickie Dean looking likely to be capped sooner than later. Back in goal, Polish Number One Bolesław Wieczorek made for a formidable last line of defence.
Tian Yonghang had reiterated that Grilled were not looking for much in his prematch comments, and while this might be an entirely reasonable approach to take, the relaxed attitude unfortunately afflicted his men too. There was somewhat less spirit in the Birds' players than usual, and the nonchalant response when Julien Brière swept Donny van de Beek's knee-high cross home in the 16th minute, didn't bode well. And indeed, Finnish teammate Jani Holmstedt would double their lead from an intelligent run, just three minutes on.
It was not wholly obvious that the Birds were destined to lose just yet, and
Hong Kang Leong ignited the team with an incredible twenty-yarder from a dead ball, 22 minutes in. Norbert Konka had thought his foul on
Gandhik Chitre the correct option, but didn't count on Hong's ability to place the ball from that distance. Holmstedt's penalty miss seven minutes later against a rabid
Dimitris Germanakos only fired Grilled up further, but they were unable to manufacture any clear chances against Wieczorek.
The second half was another matter altogether, as the Warriors began to tailor their game against Grilled - to great effect. A patient, strangling offence would see
Aw Keng Chuan turn blindly into a trap 54 minutes in, with Youssef Abdelnacer definitely not where he was expected to be. The French leftback would be substituted nine minutes after scoring, with German replacement Yannic Baumhauer no less adept at supporting his side's frequent wing attacks.
It was all going according to the English team's plans now, as Grilled struggled to contain their incisive passing combinations. Hometown hero Dickie Dean reminded England fans of what he had to offer when he scorched Hong from a standing start in the 68th minute before easily luring Germanakos aside, only for
Lim An Keng to rise to the challenge with an ambitious dribble of his own. He did well to elude Jani Holmstedt with a subtle scissors trick, but the intended finish with his weaker foot wasn't on target.
Holmstedt would be rather more adept at making his own shot than at man-marking, and that was exactly what he did three minutes later, as he received a cross-field Van de Beek glider, before driving it hard past Germanakos for Ville's fifth goal. Dickie Dean's instincts got ahead of him as he then caught
Hong Kang Leong late in trying to steal the ball, for which he was duly yellow-carded.
Grilled Birds could hardly hope for anything from this game by now, but they were not idle despite faced with an impending exit from the competition.
Brian Reddy spotted Wieczorek being a little slow in returning to his line after coming out in support of his defenders, and nearly caught him out with a cheeky lob from near forty yards.
Lim An Keng had rushed forward just in case, but could not get to the loose ball before Norbert Konka closed him down.
The Warriors would add one final goal after
Paulino Trindade came on for
Hwang Teck Fu, as an energetic Yannic Baumhauer continued his run after initially laying it on to Crawley, and was rewarded with a prompt return ball. Tian would put
Chan Ze Han and
Teo Chuan Yong on with injury time looming, but more to stretch their legs than towards any concrete mission.
