Seven In A Jaffy
Cismaş Jolt
Grilled Birds topped their AFC ASIAN CUP group with a 7-1 romp over Sri Lankan III.9 side Jaffna Peninsula, as the former national Sapphire Challenger Cup winners bowed out with a team very much in development. Their lineup melded journeymen veterans such as Robert Blinkowski and Jan Cismaş with under-20 hopefuls including Noah Allan, Baha Çalkın, Prokofiy Erygin and Nepali youth prospect Sushan Waniyam, into what was a lively if not always coherent 3-5-2.
This was sufficient for them to take a shock lead against Grilled, as it was, with Turkish left winger Baha Çalkın being all too eager to pick on both
Brian Reddy and
Raúl Himadas at a go in the third minute. These two Birds wise men were left watching each other as the sprightly Number Eleven burrowed his way into the box, and despite Waniyam being thrown off his approach by
Aw Keng Chuan's intervention, Jaffna had Jan Cismaş ready to pull the trigger - with his punchy drive just eluding
Radomil Marcol's reach.
Jaffna's dawn would not last much longer with the Birds' fundamentals taking over, and their answer would come from wide left too.
Paulino Trindade took American fullback Jeffery Ford for a ride in the eighth minute before putting it past Kasper Crone, and he could well have had a second goal in the very next minute, after
Brian Reddy dragged the entire Jaffna flank with him on a pulsating dash. The eventual cross was tailor-made for Trindade, who sadly got over-excited with the volley.
It would soon be
Raúl Himadas' turn to take centrestage, with the Spanish defender finding it safe to venture forward more given Grilled's overall dominance. He was good at it too, and a deft knock-on from a quick
Aw Keng Chuan corner take had
Chad Thach put the Birds in front. There would be a probable refereeing error next with a penalty awarded for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's fall despite the forward not even asking for it, but that was of no concern to Himadas, who buried it into the bottom right.
Chia Kwang Tse had the first half finish 4-1 upon taking advantage of a defensive mix-up in the 32nd, as Marzuki fluffed a naughty Himadas free-kick innovation five minutes from that. Jaffna Peninsula were recharged coming out of the dressing room, and even pieced together some very watchable assaults; Latvian wide forward Prokofiy Erygin flaunted his unreasonable pace in the 57th minute to drag a pass across Marcol, but alas there was too much on it for Noah Allan to make contact.
Grilled were not exactly too coordinated at this point either, and
Chad Thach would balloon their only true chance for half an hour, wasting
Brian Reddy's careful setup. Thach would not look too displeased at getting subbed off for
Lim An Keng in the 80th minute, from how often his touch had failed him today, and Robert Blinkowski's booking for downing Lim on his entrance was a sign that the match was about to get spicy again. And true enough,
Brian Reddy would score on the next move, with another yellow shown to Waniyam for a very late tackle on
Hwang Teck Fu in the process.
Sushan Waniyam's future does appear bright, from how he outleapt
Ha Qicai to nearly nod it home from a rare cross next, but it would be the Birds' day here.
Chia Kwang Tse and then
Aw Keng Chuan would bring the scoreline up to 7-1 against a discouraged Jaffna outfit, before
Mohd Marzuki Khairul couldn't resist a mean-spirited shove from behind on Ruwan Jayasinghe. That was rightly carded too, with the referee giving Marzuki a long talking-to while
Damian Hutter ambled on for Aw.
