Home Stoned
Tactical Misstep
Grilled Birds got past reigning Benin Cup holders maison en pierre in the King of Football Cup, after the recent Benin Premier League champions tried to fall back to defend their lead - which did not turn out well for them at all. 34 year-old former Croatian national custodian Gordan Marijanović would be beaten thrice after that, as maison found themselves mired in their own half.
The Group I runners-up started in a 3-5-2 anchored by Polish ex-international sweeper Wojciech Kuczmarski, powered by the experienced duo of Dagmar Van Doorslaar and Branimir Milovac in midfield, and led by threepeat top scorer Stjepan Mujčin. That all of the above were 35 years of age spoke volumes about Finnish head coach Alex Thessler's preference for older and calmer heads, which to tell the truth had served the club well for many seasons before this.
An opening day 1-1 draw against Djougou.FC was a bit of a letdown for their famously expectant fans, which was reflected in their eagerness to test
Radomil Marcol from all distances.
Aw Keng Chuan was forced to tug Van Doorslaar back in the fourth minute with the Belgian having a clear run on. Chuqimamani Salazar sized up the free-kick quite convincingly, before rolling it sideways for former Indian national star Nayyar Rauf to have a go. The well-hit shot flew for the far top corner unimpeded by the wall, only to graze the crossbar.
Duly warned, it was Grilled Birds' turn to take the Benin side on, and they had a lively advance down the middle about the tenth minute, that ended with
Gandhik Chitre's lashed right-footer expertly stopped by Marijanović. The struggle to claim the first goal was intense, and after much to-and-froing, Dagmar Van Doorslaar eluded
Hwang Teck Fu's valiant tracking to free himself down the right wing in the 27th minute, and Branimir Milovac volleyed the cross home to add to his vital league goal from the weekend.
This was just what Thessler had been angling for, from how he would continually remind his team to slow the game down from the sidelines, which developed into his redeploying Luis Borbón from forward to leftback about ten minutes later. This would however backfire spectacularly, with Borbón showing minimal will to guard
Brian Reddy on the latter's very next dribble. Tim Dorow, who had been handling the Singaporean winger adequately up to then, was unable to salvage the situation, and
Lim An Keng happily equalized with a monster header from Reddy's delivery.
maison en pierre were definitely not chuffed at that, with their defenders accusing each other about failing to mark Lim, but there would be more cause for recriminations as
Gandhik Chitre leapt on a quick break for 2-1 seconds after the restart. The final few minutes of the half would be hectic, what with
Chia Kwang Tse striking the bar as maison's backline crumbled,
Chad Thach booked for protesting no corner being awarded, and Milovac nearly equalizing in the confusion with nobody catching on to his sprint up the right.
All this made the match certain value for money for those that had turned up, and with Grilled Birds' lead anything but concrete, few indeed would leave during the interval. The second half started with maison giving
Aw Keng Chuan an unfriendly welcome by concentrating their efforts at him, with the midfielder having just replaced
Genki Nagano. Tim Dorow should really have tied it up three minutes in as he was threaded through by Van Doorslaar, but he scooped the ball well over.
Aw would improve quickly as he got warmed up, on the contrary, and he would grab an important third goal for the Birds, 59 minutes in. maison would be stuck defending as they obeyed their coach's instructions to wait for mistakes, but their occasional cracks from well outside were insufficient to worry
Radomil Marcol much. Obvious targets
Gandhik Chitre and
Lim An Keng were well-marked as
Chia Kwang Tse sought an outlet pass, but Aw waved for it entirely unheeded just a few yards outside the penalty area - before making Marijanović pay for the disrespect with a thunderous drive off his laces. 3-1, Grilled.
This was not to say that the Birds sat comfortably when they didn't have the ball, but maison largely failed to commit enough personnel to really make their attacks count. Instead, it was mostly Grilled to threaten a fourth as they never gave up on pushing into the opposition half, and Chitre was for one never slow to take shots on. He put in a fine half-volley in the 74th minute after contending messily with Kuczmarski, and it would have gone in had it been a yard lower.
maison would finally recognize that they were in dire straits with about ten minutes remaining, but it was a little too late to switch up their mindset. Stjepan Mujčin would be carded in the 81st minute with
Raúl Himadas happy to engage in some cheeky time-wasting himself, with the Spanish defender further making a point with his slow walk off after being subbed out for
Damian Hutter. maison might well have cranked up the excitement for injury time, but
Radomil Marcol got a fist to Kuczmarski's incredible blast from twenty-five metres out, to lock in the win.
