Birmanezii Bumpoff
Greco Gets It
Grilled Birds suffered a defeat in the World Battle tournament against fellow II.2 mid-table club FC Birmanezii, who won one for Myanmar in a tight nine-goal thriller. The Birds' chase from behind much resembled their famous Singapore Cup final victory in Season 75 against Bot Team FC, according to not a few veteran fans who made the flight to Mon State; sadly, they would be unable to apply the finishing touch on this occasion.
Now in their fourth season in Division Two, FC Birmanezii are working towards the next step up, according to their local boss Nyi Shine Naung. They have recruited heavily towards this, with each of their latest major signings in the past couple of years - Czech goalkeeper Josef Polehla and former Palestine national U-20 winger Abbas Issa Murjan - costing them north of S$14 million each. Polehla would soon be moved on at a near S$5 million loss, but this did not affect the team overly, with Romanian Number One Christian Ianculov regaining his starting spot.
The home support's favourites were undoubtedly local lads Thant Thu Tun, the latest hit with the Myanmar national side, and Hein Myo Zaw - both of whom would feature today. Portuguese rightback Afonso Fernando Nascimento exuded confidence as he exchanged a handshake with Birds captain
Ha Qicai before the kick-off, which he won with a call of heads. The first big chance fell to
Chan Ze Han in the third minute, though, as the 41 year-old legend glided past ex-Brazil youth international midfielder Eliel 'Fabinho' Greco. Alas, had Chan been ten or even five years younger, he would surely have then opened up enough of a gap, for an easy shot.
As it was, the opener would be FC Birmanezii's, as they attacked heavily up the right wing with Slovenian winger Lian Pelhan continually running at
Hwang Teck Fu. This would not bear fruit until he laid it back to Nascimento in the eighth minute, before glancing the return cross down past
Dimitris Germanakos after continuing his dash into the box. Spanish defender Ermenter Camps then had a go in the 19th minute from a similar cross, but
Aw Keng Chuan put him off sufficiently by getting in his face.
Grilled's equalizer wouldn't be much longer in arriving as their playmakers began to get the hang of the hosts' defending style, and
Hwang Teck Fu made up for any defensive deficiencies, with an incredible rush past two defenders, before firing unstoppably into Ianculov's top right corner. The Birds then survived a bad
Brian Reddy misplaced pass across the back 32 minutes in, before Luis Fabián Croce turned another Pelhan low cross in, as FC Birmanezii continued working the right wing diligently.
It wasn't looking that bad for the Birds actually, seeing as their midfield actually shaded the hosts' in the first half by possession statistics, but new problems would crop up in the 58th minute as FC Birmanezii took a two-goal lead through Nascimento, after a clever flank switch. Grilled were pretty feisty still, and after
Lim An Keng's determined charge was shut down in the 60th minute,
Chad Thach took over after scooping up the loose ball several yards outside the box, and jinked past Ermenter Camps to score.
Grilled Birds were going hard for another equalizer about this period, with the home team's formation starting to fall apart, and
Tian Yonghang tried to hasten the process with a double substitution of
Paulino Trindade and
Damian Hutter on for Hwang and Aw, with twenty minutes remaining. Unfortunately, FC Birmanezii were the first to benefit, as Thant Thu Tun challenged a still-rusty Hutter on his first dribble following the subs, and made enough space for himself on his favoured right side to crush a shot home. 4-2.
Well, the Birds were nothing if not resilient, and they would redouble on their attacking efforts with their opponents quite obviously finding it hard to maintain their positions.
Brian Reddy would finally start to create openings against the slowing Luis Fabián Croce, and a brilliant short pass after circling backwards, would see
Lim An Keng reduce against Ianculov with an instinctive touch. Tian tried a final boost at this, as he replaced the clearly-spent
Chan Ze Han, with a fresh
Toma Tamiya.
That looked like a genius move indeed, as Toma's first encounter with the ball would result in an assist, via bending a corner kick straight to
Ha Qicai in the middle of the six-yard box. Sadly, FC Birmanezii would score for a fifth time two minutes later, as Eliel Greco wriggled free of the combined attentions of Hutter and Thach, to curl a worldie past
Dimitris Germanakos at full stretch.