Grain Ripens
Gonçalves Harvest
Grilled Birds fell in the eighth round of the World Battle tournament to defending Taça Nacional de São Tomé e Príncipe holders Against the Grain, with the São Tomé II.3 club outgunning the Birds to a 6-3 result. This, it had to be said, was actually a good reflection of the match, which saw AtG's well-oiled 3-5-2 take command for long stretches.
AtG revolved around the homeground midfield trio of Isaías Igreja, Francisco Gonçalves and Caetano José de Carvalho - who have collected 122 national caps between them; despite all being over 32 years in age, they have showed few indications of slowing yet, with their by-now instinctual interplay oft being described as uncanny. Faroese Poul Bisp and Ecuadorean Pepe Mora, both current national strikers, led their attack. While credentials were slightly less ridiculous at the back, they would nevertheless have Croatian national squad prospect Ladislav Vrcić tying it together.
For once, it didn't look positive at all for Grilled Birds after the intial roll call, but the Birds weren't ones to dwell on honours. Bosnian winger
Darko Andrović - whose life had just been turned around by his unexpected move to Singapore - certainly wasn't cowed, and he took former Dutch youth international Ludo Gerbrands on for pace, in the fifth minute. AtG appeared to have weighted their backline towards their left to contain
Brian Reddy, and they would have cause to rethink this as Andrović outran Vrcić along the head of the penalty area, before flashing his strike past Brazilian custodian Hermes Amaral.
That was an incredible goal to start the game off with, but the São Tomé club had merely not yet stabilized, from how it further developed. Grilled's midfield of
Chad Thach,
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and
Lim An Keng, so usually dominant against many opponents, were the ones being toyed with by their more-experienced opponents at times. Agostinho Ascensão went on the overlap as Polish wingman Mieczysław Szymił dropped inside, and some ten seconds later it would be Szymił to power a header past Radomil Marol to equalize.
From 1-1 in the 16th minute, it would be 4-1 to Against the Grain by half-time, as they steadily built on their superior distribution. Although posession was roughly evenly split, AtG were just doing so much more with the ball when they had it, and they were ahead in the 26th as Francisco Gonçalves nodded a trademark dipping header home from a corner. Isaías Igreja fired a fifteen-yarder for the third in the 33rd minute, and although Marcol stopped a great Pepe Mora diving header two minutes later, the ball would be recycled up the left flank, leading to Poul Bisp putting it in soon after.
Ha Qicai couldn't even look annoyed at that, from how well-worked the build-up was, and there would even be some joking between him and fellow skipper De Carvalho as they strode off the pitch. The good vibes would not last forever as
Chia Kwang Tse got hauled up for some on-the-ground nonsense with Ângelo Azevedo in the 54th minute, and after the matched reheated up, Francisco Gonçalves made it 5-1 with a sweet volley off Ludo Gerbrands, eleven minutes later.
There would then be a brief, shining minute of glory for the Birds, as they finally found a way through on the right side via an extended
Brian Reddy dribble, in the 68th minute. Neither Azevedo nor Agostinho Ascensão imagined that Reddy would try to simply sprint through them, but the former Singapore U-20 winger possessed the pace and balance to do so. The shock had not subsided when
Gandhik Chitre tried a similarly direct approach, to identical success.
That was 5-3, and there was suddenly every indication that Grilled Birds might at least recover a draw, which would have felt impossible just a couple of minutes ago. Mieczysław Szymił had other ideas, unfortunately, and the winger would take full advantage of
Darko Andrović's temporary absence to terrorize the Grilled centrebacks in the 74th minute, with
Raúl Himadas slow to recognize the danger.
Ha Qicai didn't manage to get anywhere near the well-placed grounder, and the match ended 6-3 to AtG.
