Come Marching Late
Shen Saint
The Birds ended their latest World Battle tournament with a draw, this against Jiangsu club Sainty, of the Chinese II.3. While this was on the face of it a good result, the fact that Sainty had played the match with just ten men due to administrative issues, perhaps took something away from it.
There were stars aplenty in that ten, assuredly, chief amongst them the famous Palden Norbu, whose exotic looks had made him a hit in the national youth team a decade ago. His playmaking abilities have only grown since then, alongside longtime partners Zhou Yanxin and Lu Chengxiang. Sainty were not averse to recruiting from abroad too, and were captained by Venezuelan national fullback Kilver Lindano; in attack, veterans Mustafa Haßlböck and Terje Sannerud combined with Shen Xianyu.
Grilled would be the ones to expose an over-cautious Sainty team from kick-off, though, as their opponents catered too much to their numerical disadvantage. Four minutes had just gone by when
Mohd Marzuki Khairul rushed a retreating Estêvão da Silva down to bang it past Ledo Carballedo, and the shaken Da Silva would stand off
Damian Hutter - in due to
Brian Reddy's suspension - too much on the very next attack. He would thus concede too much space for the low cross, which was met by
Gandhik Chitre for 2-0.
It was down to Lindano to keep his team together and functioning now, against a Birds side emboldened by their success thus far. Lindano's efforts would not be wholly requited as
Damian Hutter caught sight of goal following a clever dummy run by
Chia Kwang Tse, that drew Zhou Yanxin away from him. The lob was barely tipped over by Carballedo, though - and the goalkeeper would cover himself in plaudits five minutes later, when he dived perfectly to stop
Raúl Himadas' good penalty to the left corner.
That, by the way, had been awarded for Norbu's interference on Marzuki inside the box, and lifted Sainty to overclock themselves for the remaining twenty minutes of the half. The restart would be accompanied by a left-side blitz from the Chinese team, which had Mustafa Haßlböck pull away from Himadas in a direct race. Jonathan Wiebalck called for it from the other flank, and Haßlböck played it into space for the Swiss winger to clip past
Radomil Marcol.
Sainty were growing from strength to strength now, and the Grilled midfield was looking quite uncertain of themselves. Shen Xianyu would give
Lim An Keng a thing to two to think about in the 55th minute, with some exquisite dribbling that left the former national youth star lunging the wrong way.
Ha Qicai would be there to save Lim's bacon then, but the threat was not over, and Wiebalck equalized on the next wave forward as Grilled's backline lost its coherency entirely.
This was a bitter pill to swallow for the Birds, but Sanity's man disadvantage was very real, and they would unavoidably have to gamble with leaving space for Grilled as exhaustion took hold. Lindano's dark arts of defending nearly worked out for him in the 74th minute as well, as he disguised a nudge on
Gandhik Chitre as the latter tried to run by, but the linesman was well-placed to spot it. That would be another penalty for
Raúl Himadas to take, and the Spaniard demonstrated balls of steel with his cheeky hit straight down the middle!
Countryman Ledo Carballedo definitely didn't think Himadas would attempt that given the match still hanging in the balance, and it was Grilled's turn to let Sanity have at it. Sadly,
Hwang Teck Fu's potential gamewinner was hacked off the line by Da Silva with the goalie beaten in the 84th minute, and Shen Xianyu would squeeze a great header past Marcol in stoppage time, after Grilled's triple substitution sparked disarray in their ranks.
