Taipei Tussle
Hein Applies KO
It would be a fourth straight victory for the Birds in World Battle competition, as they shut out Taiwanese II.3 side TimyWu in a 2-0 that was perhaps closer than it sounded. TimyWu had undeniably run into trouble in their second season in Division Two, having lost their last six official games; Spanish head coach Alberto Folch's latest attempt at righting the ship had been their S$1.5 million signing of Italian midfielder Enrico Mauro Tesolin, but all indications are that it will take far more than that to change their fortunes.
Tesolin would not be included in Folch's usual 4-5-1 for this fixture, which had Norwegian captain Ivar Sakariassen feature on the right side of defence despite his carrying a thigh strain. And to be frank, pundits have puzzled over their current prediacment, given an evident wealth of talent throughout - Slovakian Víťazoslav Jaroš had been hailed as one of the best centrebacks in the league, and the Lin pair of Youzong and Chunlong regularly exhibited excellent coordination in midfield. Scoring had expectedly been an issue, but German target man Stefan Meiburg had put out no lack of effort, in his previous outings.
Well, this was another chance for TimyWu to prove their critics wrong, but it just wasn't coming together for them as Grilled hogged possession. Lin Chunlong would force the first real save of the match out of
Radomil Marcol in the tenth minute after a superb solo run, but it was the Birds who went ahead via
Hwang Teck Fu in the 17th.
Genki Nagano thrashed it off the post after former Turkish U-20 international fullback Sedat Sarı had wandered off, and Hwang shouldered his marker aside to make the rebound count.
The rest of the half would be uneventful after another spurt of Grilled activity starting from the 23rd minute, which had
Lim An Keng's outrageous inside-out strike from nothing somehow warded off by Bulgarian custodian Plamen Peychev. Two minutes later,
Darko Andrović weaseled his way inside only for him to pull his lob well over with only Peychev to beat, and
Chia Kwang Tse would then be booked for insisting on a penalty for being held back on that move.
The second half would start slowly too with TimyWu not in a rush to find an equalizer, although it had to be said that they didn't seem to have many ideas when they did have the ball. Meiburg had to be lauded for continually fluttering between the Birds' centerbacks, but neither Himadas nor Qicai would have much to do, as the Taiwanese side generally played it safe.
Tian Yonghang was then the one to inject some change, as he took
Genki Nagano off for
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko with twenty minutes left.
As so often is the case, the substitution would be the catalyst for an uptick in activity, and it would be the TimyWu team to finally make their bid for a draw at least. Stefan Meiburg's time seemed to have come on their next possession with Polish winger Benedykt Skręta taking advantage of Hein's settling in, but he would be a yard high with his strike. Five minutes on, Lithuanian speedster Joakimas Berkmonas broke the Grilled midfield line with a sudden bout of acceleration, but the ever-dependable
Aw Keng Chuan got a slight but critical deflection on his diagonal ball to Huang Zhongping.
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko had not distinguished himself defensively in his first few minutes on the pitch, it had to be said, but his other gifts would soon reveal themselves. There didn't appear much up when
Raúl Himadas rolled the ball lazily to
Darko Andrović just over the halfway line, but a couple of quick exchanges with Hwang and then
Lim An Keng saw the Bosnian free and clear down the left. Plamen Peychev positioned himself against a shot, but was in turn left vulnerable to Andrović's perfectly-weighted cross over to Hein at the far post.
The TimyWu supporters seemed to understand that that was game, set and match, but their players would continue battling on the field. Lin Youzong for one never stopped trying to get the ball off the Grilled players, but all this brought him was a yellow in the 83rd minute, for adhering too closely to
Chia Kwang Tse off the ball. Chia could afford to be magnanimous seeing as Grilled Birds were safely ahead, though, and he would ask Lin for his shirt after the match had ended.
