Riyadh Riposte
Neo Loses Cool
Saudi Arabian II.2 visitors AC Riyadh took a well-earned 2-1 victory back with them, as they showed up the vulnerability of Grilled's reserve side to a principled counterattacking strategy. While
Zhu Changchun and
lu Zunwen made rare friendly showings and bossed the midfield as was only to be expected, the lack of bite up front meant that AC Riyadh had plenty of chances to hit back on the break, which they did.
The Saudi team brought a heavily cosmopolitan side to The Cooking Pot, with only U-20 defender Nasir Hamdan and goalkeeper Shareef Ameen Husseiny being homegrown. There were no true prima donnas in there though, with all the players knowing their part, and Grilled's heavy barrage in the beginning was repulsed without too much trouble.
They may have been a little too professional going about it in the seventeenth minute, when Chilean fullback Próspero Larrañaga waited for
Hilal Bakhtiar to extend his leg before catching his own foot in it rather too blatantly. His teammates immediately raised their hands in unison for a penalty, but sharp-eyed referee Marco Larocca was none too amused, and booked him for simulation.
AC Riyadh need not have resorted to such tactics, given their proclivity for productive direct play whenever they got the ball in Grilled's half, and Swiss winger Julien Brinkman claimed the opening goal in the 23rd minute with some delightful balance to stay on his feet after taking
Colby Awyong's barge.
Wardi Azhari responded for the Birds several minutes later, finally seeing a gap in the opponents' heavily-manned defence.
The second half saw
Rauf Khairul Akmal come in for
Krishnan Adabala, and after a lengthy period of encouraging interpassing, a yellow card for
Neo Da Teck, who has evidently been pushing for a first-team breakthrough with his recent displays, for an overdone tackle. Grilled's youngsters were getting especially frustrated by this stage, unable to comprehend how they were not yet ahead despite having almost all of the ball, and that was the signal for AC Riyadh to make their move.
The visitors had saved a lot of energy with their zonal defence, and shocked the Birds with the cohesiveness with which they counterattacked when they put their minds to it.
Hovaness Noubaryan's good positioning prevented him from having to face Quentin Soula alone in the 63rd minute, while his reflexes saved Ofek Stolero's low bouncing strike in the 71st. Grilled tried one of their own after that, but
Rauf Khairul Akmal completely mishit an open volley, and he was not yet done mourning that mistake when AC Riyadh countered in numbers yet again, and this time Soula didn't miss.
They appeared confident of protecting the lead, and were proven right as
Tang Hengcai and
Mayur Gudivada's decent long-range attempts were warded aside by their swarming backline. Grilled made a last throw of the dice by bringing former Saudi national teamer
Qassem Madaini on, who may have become the first Grilled player to receive a warmer reception from the travelling fans than the home one. However,
Neo Da Teck's second yellow for talking back to the referee ended hopes of an equaliser, as Grilled, who were having a hard time of it breaking through with eleven men, were clueless with ten.