Pacific Stalemate
Lead Let Slip
The Birds did their best to overhaul Batavia Cavaliers, but were reduced to taking the one point from a rain-soaked Pacific Place, which kept them one frustrating step behind. What made it worse was that Grilled had no shortage of chances to put the game in the bag, and therefore can have only themselves to blame.
Batavia, whose Cup adventure had come to a halt at the hands of Robbie Football Club during the week, kept most of their starters from that game, with the exception of the injured Dan Hartshorne and Hairuddin bin Mohd Zain, who despite returning to training yesterday was kept on the bench as a precaution. Grilled gave
Yvan Lefébure his first competitive start of the season sitting in front of the defence, with
Chow Ying Lee serving his suspension.
Chow's absence was barely noticed in the opening exchanges, as Grilled rushed to establish the tone of the match.
Tian Yonghang, who has often been overshadowed playing third fiddle to his more established contemporaries, gave as good as he got, and showed the lesser-seen fighter side of his personality in the fifth minute when he shoved a defender aside and squeezed in a shot at Eugen Falkenhusen.
It was not long before Tian returned to being his old self, and in the 19th minute he silenced the raucous crowd when he plucked a floater out of the sky with his left boot before passing the ball between Gueydan's legs with his right. The commentator did a double take and had to rely on the replay to figure out what exactly had happened, but there was no mistaking the magnificent howitzer goal that followed.
It was all one-way at this stage, and Mohd Safri should well have capitalized on
Slavcho Tzonkov's accurate ball out of defence, but Grilled's brightest star couldn't press his advantage sufficiently on the heavy pitch and had it blocked by the defence. However, the Cavaliers were not able to get it away, and
lu Zunwen came in from central midfield to heave another boomer past Falkenhusen.
Not able to believe their luck, Grilled settled on protecting their lead, but quickly learnt their lesson when Vasco Cesário burnt Tzonkov down the left side to make it 2-1. There was certainly no lack of drive on the hosts' part, with Edilio Zeppegno tweaking a muscle sprinting for a loose ball, but it was the Birds who really ought to have put it beyond them - Tian elected to strike instead of cut it back inside for an easy finish in the 38th minute, elicting a disgusted look from Mohd Safri.
With the rain now pouring in earnest, Han must have figured that they could get away with battening down the hatches, but with only two recognized defenders on the field, Grilled were soon subjected to dangerous shots from Batavia. One in particular by Ingo Maase whistled inches over the crossbar, which prompted the coach to reverse his half-time tactical update.
Freed to attack once more, Grilled looked much more like themselves, and
Seytek Djekshenkulov could have closed it off had he hit it harder in the 69th minute, instead of allowing the overworked Falkenhusen to reach his attempt with his fingertips. The Birds would pay for not converting, as Igor Szlendak trapped the ball crisply on another push down the left by Radu Chirciu, and equalised in a flash, giving
Dexter Stacey no time to set himself.
It was Stacey's turn to sweat in the final ten minutes as Batavia searched for the winner, which would likely have condemned Grilled to relegation. The referee became quite unpopular when he turned down He Fuqing's appeals for a penalty after the sprightly young striker tumbled under pressure from Stacey inside the box, with He quite obviously looking for the call.
The home side had one last golden opportunity in the dying minutes as Torgeir Mjelde outpaced the tiring Grilled defence to go one-on-one with Stacey, but Grilled's reigning Player of the Season made himself big and kept his club's season alive with a wonderful save off his leg.
