Putting The Hertha On
An Keng No Anger
Left forward
Lim An Keng would be the deciding factor in Grilled Birds' 5-3 victory against German II.3 World Battle opponents Hertha SCB, and in doing so prevented a full wipeout of the Singaporean II.2 representatives in this second round. The game could have gone either way in all honestly, with the blue-and-white stripes of Hertha flying high on a five-game winning streak. The arrival of former Taiwanese U-20 national goalkeeper Lu Quanfeng added depth to an already formidable Hertha squad, but Lu would be left on the bench today with German second-choice Jens Anger starting between the posts.
Other than that, Belgian head coach Stefan Witgeers had not left too much in reserve, save perhaps for iconic forward Theofried Schwarzbeck, who had accompanied the club all the way in their journey from Division Seven to Two. Lutz Eschen and Marko Pantelić could hardly be definitively said to be inferior in a 3-5-2, however, and one of them had to miss out. Hertha's midfield boasted Macedonian international Bozhin Milenkovski and Spanish Number Seven Juancho Duriz wide right, ably supported by Peruvian wingback Akihiro Sasao - who is reportedly being considered by the La Bicolor manager.
There were no real shakeups for the Birds with
Tian Yonghang's best XI basically picking itself, what with Marzuki's extended dip in form that has had the coaches resort to psychological assessment. Much the same went for
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko and
Genki Nagano, although Hertha's early shredding of the Birds' rearguard had the commentators wondering whether Tian should have included one of them regardless. Christian Apfeld's 13th minute goal was in the making for awhile, but his elegant strike as Marcelo Santos's forward pass bounced ahead of him, remained an absolutely top-drawer execution.
Gandhik Chitre surpassed most expectations with some very intelligent positioning to invite
Chad Thach's assist two minutes later, but there was no question that Hertha were the ones on top at this time. And indeed, the Germans were ahead again by the 24th minute with Duriz inverting on Lutz Eschen's powerful run, and while Thach briefly gave Jens Anger something to mull over with a snipe from way out that clipped his far post, it was Hertha that went 3-1 up in the 39th when Apfeld evaded both
Brian Reddy and
Raúl Himadas, to set himself up from a tight but still viable angle.
Few could have bet on Grilled ever turning it around, had the match continued with Hertha this convincing, but they would be aided by a stroke of luck about four minutes before half-time. Their massed rush up the centre appeared to be going nowhere, with Mirko Rättich further set to spark a dangerous counter, but his attempted defence-splitting pass would cannon back off
Chia Kwang Tse - who knew nothing about it. It dropped very nicely for Thach too, but the forward would be unselfish in slipping it across to a better-placed teammate... and
Ha Qicai would not disappoint with his wild lash into the net.
The broadcast box would ruminate on whether Lu could have stopped Ha's goal through the break, with the consensus being that he likely would have. That was entirely academic once the match resumed, of course, with it suddenly looking like a very different game for some reason. It might have been due to Aw finally getting the hang of Milenkovski and company, it might have been due to Grilled coming to terms with Hertha's defensive shape, but the real answer soon became apparent - it was due to
Lim An Keng.
The forward had not managed many touches in the first half, what with Hertha SCB doing most of the attacking and Akihiro Sasao shadowing him otherwise, but this state of affairs would not continue for much longer. The Birds were beginning to decipher Hertha's midfield patterns, and a clever carry from
Hwang Teck Fu would leave him with multiple passing outlets in the 52nd minute. It looked like he would try for
Chad Thach, only to sling it around towards
Lim An Keng instead. That caught the Hertha defence overloaded to their left, and Lim had time to compose himself before Anger, and slip it to his outside.
Grilled were looking the more enterprising team now, having equalized for a second time, and it would take but five more minutes before they went in front. This was more of a defensive mistake than out of any special skill from the Birds, as Marcelo Santos let a backpass through, seemingly expecting Italian sweeper Juri Ugoccioni to have it covered. The pass slowed much quicker than Santos had expected, however, allowing
Gandhik Chitre to swoop in and scoop it up, before releasing Lim on a cheeky no-look pass.
That was 4-3 to the Birds, and Hertha were the more frazzled side for once. They would strive to come back level through their wing play, but they first had to survive another serious Grilled attack down the left, that had Chitre's fierce grounder off
Darko Andrović's slip-through barely warded off by Anger. Milenkovski would then create Hertha's best chance of the half thus far with his dribble past Hwang and then
Ha Qicai, but
Aw Keng Chuan would be there to bravely absorb his shot.
Aw thus had good reason to smile when he was relieved of his duty by
Genki Nagano in the 80th minute, as
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko came in for
Hwang Teck Fu at the same time, ostensibly to help Grilled sit on their lead.
Lim An Keng was not leaving anything to chance - or his head coach's measures, and he duly completely his hat-trick off a driven free-kick by
Ha Qicai immediately after the subs. Lutz Eschen would try to constrain Lim, but to no avail as the Birds Number Eight cracked the deflected effort past Anger from five yards.
