Sacsayhuamán Split
Kerry Sees
Grilled Birds' winless streak stretched to six games in all competitions, as they failed to overcome El Salvador II.3 side Deportivo Sacsayhuamán, in today's World Battle test. Then again, the 3-3 draw was largely reflective of the recent Copa Desafío Rubí winners' overall strength, and the Birds should get some recognition for navigating past their practised low block, and a 0-2 deficit atop that.
Georgian II.3 club Luis chelsea may have had Firas Habry hit a hat-trick against them towards a 4-1 victory a week ago, but Dutch head coach Addy Wiggers had reset them for this match. His first-choice midfield of last season's big signings Bendik Lomeland and Kerry Sawyer, sandwiching Swedish dead ball specialist Anacleto Quintún, would start; former São Tomé e Príncipe national youth goalie André Manuel da Cruz manned the goal, with veteran Welsh Number Nine David Alesworth throwing his weight about at the head of the line.
Sacsayhuamán's specialty remained their five-man backline led by homegrown ex-El Salvador U-20 fullback Eusebio Lozada, of course, with 21 year-old José Luis Machado bouncing about the fringes of the latest setup. With Finnish sweeper Lasse Alanampa the only foreign transplant, the camaraderie that this backline had was unmistakeable, as shown when Da Cruz blocked
Lim An Keng's forced effort in the eighth minute. Lozada knew exactly where Machado would be as he nicked the ball out of defence with nary a glance, and the lightning-fast counter concluded with Kerry Sawyer slipping the ball past
Dimitris Germanakos, barely fifteen seconds later.
That was not what
Brian Reddy was expecting, and the combustible winger toyed with fate in slicing Alexis Paredes down at the corner flag, after being shielded off. A less-lenient referee might have sent him off, but Reddy survived. Grilled were not faring much better regardless, and after another good save by Da Cruz in the 18th minute off
Gandhik Chitre, the defence played it long to Alesworth, who held it up excellently against
Ha Qicai before playing Fausto Damiani in for the second, following Lomeland's clever dummy run.
It would have been more of a downer for Grilled had they not reduced four minutes later, as
Mohd Marzuki Khairul took Machado on sprinting in from the left, and pulled a sudden stop to open an angle to shoot. The equalizer was not forthcoming yet, however, with Da Cruz continuing his series of top-class saves, with a low scramble to
Chia Kwang Tse's ten-foot grounder a while later.
Raúl Himadas then bent a near-perfect free-kick around the wall in the 34th, but it rang off the post.
Sacsayhuamán were not about to try and attack themselves without a clear opening, and were content to let Grilled come at them for it. Even their midfield were sitting back now, which led to a flurry of set pieces, another of which Himadas sent within inches of the top corner on the hour. Mistakes were inevitably made, and after Alanampa stepped up a fraction too late against
Chad Thach several minutes on, Thach would be through to take Da Cruz on mano-a-mano... which ended with him breezing past the goalkeeper on his right.
With it being all level again, the El Salvadorians had to come out of their shell a little, but that would not be enough to change the flow. It just wasn't Himadas' day as he crashed another try against the crossbar in the 73rd minute, but that was at least not a total write-off, as it bounced back to
Hwang Teck Fu on the left side of the six-yard box. Weighing his options, Hwang went to the outside, and squeezed his shot in at the near post to give the Birds the lead!
Tian Yonghang attempted his tactical substitutions with ten minutes remaining, taking
Lim An Keng and the unlucky
Raúl Himadas off, and putting
Aw Keng Chuan and
Damian Hutter on. If the intent was to protect the win, however, it would backfire hugely, as Sawyer immediately rushed through an unprepared Birds backline to make it three-all. There would be a yellow card for Anacleto Quintún as Sacsayhuamán chased the win, which Lasse Alanampa nearly got in a last-gasp counter.