Ponding Resolved
Arsenie Of Meritocracy
Grilled Birds handily topped Group J in the King of Football Club by beating Swedish IV.78 challengers Meadow Pond 4-1 in the final round, though it really didn't matter either way. This was admittedly a fine workout for the players against Mika Puro's orthodox 3-5-2, with the Finnish head coach electing to mirror the Birds man for man - but perhaps without sufficient quality.
The discrepancy was extra obvious on defence, with none of Theodoros Kotovas, Konstantin Letnikov and Ludger Somers acquitting themselves well against their respective Grilled attackers. The teams were more well-latched in midfield if with Iakovos Papettas seeming a tad lightweight, which was compensated by the size and presence of Italian enforcer Simone Canfora. Up top, 31 year-old Spanish skipper Obats Arteabarro wasn't shy about running at
Ha Qicai, with Romanian sidekick Ionuţ-Marius Arsenie providing good backup.
As is so often the case, it was Grilled who pressed for a response first, with
Hwang Teck Fu forcing Anders Åkesson into full stretch with his diagonal grounder across goal in just the second minute. Pond were better at man-marking than expected, it had to be admitted, with the next big chance being Iakovos Papettas' excellent volley that
Radomil Marcol collected in the 23rd minute. More close shaves followed as
Brian Reddy slung a bicycle kick off the upright 38 minutes in, with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul then ramming it against the crossbar, as the Swedes hastened to cover.
If the fans were wondering how the ball had managed not to breach the net yet, it would finally happen two minutes before the interval - and twice at that. It began after an inspired counter by Pond that had Arteabarro give Marcol too much respect with his placement, after which
Chad Thach preyed on an inopportune Ahmet Fahri Hayme pass meant for his goalie, that he supplied a stiff boot to. The Swedes went all in on the restart, and while Arteabarro was bumped off Hayme's searching ball into the box, Arsenie was on tap to provide redemption.
Darko Andrović took over as Grilled captain with
Aw Keng Chuan coming on for
Ha Qicai to start the second half, and Meadow Pond would carry on with their own changes: Finnish winger Jore Viikki for Ahmet Fahri Hayme in the 50th minute, before Ionuţ-Marius Arsenie made way for Puerto Rican forward Luis Germán five minutes on, to evident displeasure. Still, this was sufficient for them to stabilize play, and a draw was very much on the cards till the 82nd minute, when the referee spotted some sneaky shirt-tugging by Ludger Somers on
Gandhik Chitre inside the penalty area.
That didn't seem quite enough to give a penalty for, but
Raúl Himadas was not one to turn them down, and his sending it to the top left corner left Åkesson diving the right way in vain. The next four minutes saw Chitre slotting a third home with the defenders wary of getting too close, before Himadas dropped a dipping free-kick home for 4-1; small wonder that the Birds fans were up in arms when he was replaced by
Damian Hutter with injury time looming, though the man himself wasn't too perturbed as he marched off with head held high.
