Myvatn Stopped
Montes Hard Done By
Grilled Birds progressed into the knockout stage of the Dominion International Cup at the expense of Red Star Club Myvatn despite an outstanding showing from their El Salvador forward Esteban Montes - who was by some distance the best man on the pitch. Grilled had the better combined firepower, though, and were also tough enough not to be put off by the combativeness of the Icelandic Division Three side.
The weather was supposedly against Myvatn to begin with, with the temperature reaching a scorching thirty-odd degrees, but it transpired that many of their players were used to warmer climes. Montes was one, obviously, but so were their continental stars such as Spanish midfield duo Gerónimo Coyro and Rafael Navarro. 38 year-old Pakistani sweeper Bilal Meraj captained their team, long removed from the time he won ten caps with his national junior squad.
Myvatn's 3-5-2 corresponded to the Birds' formation seemingly by design, and their uncompromising approach would be announced by American winger Dwight Davis chopping
Gandhik Chitre down in the fourth minute. That had the normally-placid Grilled attacker make to retaliate, before thinking better of it as the referee rushed over to caution Davis. His fire had not been put out, and it would carry him to a blazing-fast dribble in the 30th minute, that yielded a goal for his 26th birthday.
That had his teammates mimicking bringing out a cake, as the Myvatn team watched with some amusement. It was soon back to serious business, and Montes would hit back from a long ball out of defence, following
Raúl Himadas' free-kick getting absorbed by their defensive wall. The Icelanders were back to bad habits with Italian winger Antonio Chirizzi felling
Brian Reddy for their second yellow, however, and they paid for it as
Hwang Teck Fu buried it on the delayed restart.
Half-time arrived four minutes after that, and the Birds would be at 3-1 in the 52nd minute, as they poured on the fuel right from kick-off. Chitre was a handful against a shackled Davis, and Turkish defender Akın Kuloğlu could do little either, when the smooth operator twisted away from him after a beguiling pair of feints.
Lim An Keng saw his chance and made his run cutting inside, taking the ball off Chitre to drive it home. Fortunately, the latter was more than understanding then.
Raúl Himadas' bad luck from free-kicks continued as he missed the top corner by inches next, with the sheer quality of his right boot being impossible to deny. Grilled had to fall back on more conventional methods of scoring, and they would claim a fourth from open play, right on the hour. The Birds were pushing up consistently by then, and
Ha Qicai would set
Aw Keng Chuan up nicely for a shot from about two yards inside the penalty area, one that Aw lifted past Merlijn Rawie.
Esteban Montes was not going to let the rot continue, however, but Myvatn had
Lim An Keng to worry about before that, as confusion in their ranks led to the midfielder-turned-striker getting presented with a free header from Chitre's ready cross. He got onto it late - perhaps not believing his luck - unfortunately, and Myvatn were off and away down the originating flank. Chilean midfielder Víctor Tomás raced clear with
Hwang Teck Fu struggling to keep up, and Montes made it look easy in taking the ball around
Dimitris Germanakos.
That was all Myvatn could manage, as it happened, and
Tian Yonghang would put
Paulino Trindade on for Chitre in the 80th minute, with orders to focus on defence. This was good enough with
Damian Hutter and
Radovan Jaška then entering for Aw and Himadas with about a minute remaining - which was long enough for Dwight Davis to get himself sent off, for another ill-advised tackle, this time on Trindade.