Booty Raided
Captain Pekka
Grilled Birds continued underwater as they were plundered 1-2 by the Curaçao Pirates 1893 in Friday's World Battle tournament match, with the man being Pirates captain Olli-Pekka Pohjanheimo, who claimed a brace within the hour to send the Birds squawking.
Genki Nagano salvaged some pride as skipper of Grilled with a late consolation, but it wasn't sufficient to prevent the club from extending their losing streak to six games.
The stakes were nebulous as Grilled basked in the Curaçao sun, with this being at the same time a tourney exhibition of no real significance, and yet also a test of the club's resilience at losing two of their most influential players. In the latter respect, it would be another failure, though bright spots were to be had especially from
Hisham Zubari's solid showing in central midfield, with some flashes of brilliance by
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko to his left.
This was however not quite up to Pirates Number Six Amado Wiels for one, with the Curaçao national team regular moreover having an U21 America Cup silver medal in his trophy cabinet. Wiels together with Richal Molino and Justin te Molder made for an enviable homegrown midfield three, that was well-supplemented by imported wingers in Vuk Bajatović and Tiberio Marian. Finnish two-time Golden Boot winner Pohjanheimo was their main striker, with Irish sweeper Jimmy Cronin the defender of last resort.
Against such a wealth of talent, it spoke highly of the Birds that they were actually able to win possession - and by a fair margin at that, but this was well within Ukrainian head coach Teodor Mitroshkin's plans, with Grilled unable to do much with the ball in the Pirates half. Contrariwise, the Pirates were a lot more clinical on the offensive, and their first real chance from Wiels to Pohjanheimo would have the latter ram it past
Radomil Marcol, with twenty minutes on the clock.
The simple through ball by Wiels belied the essential simplicity of his style, which made it all the more difficult to address.
Chia Kwang Tse would be booked two minutes later for barging into Te Molder and playing on, after another effective pass from the Pirates Number Six. The Birds would get better, and with 31 minutes gone,
Phillip Nagata gave Portuguese goalie Paulo Leite something to think about, with a screamer from the left aimed at the roof of the net, that Leite struggled to palm aside.
Former Curaçao youth international fullback Vurnon Jacobus did his best to keep it from going behind, but this only gave
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko an opportunity to retrieve the ball for Grilled. Smartly dodging Bajatović's attempted strip from behind, Hein crossed with his next touch, but it flew just over
Lim An Keng's soaring leap. The Birds did retain possession with
Chia Kwang Tse retrieving on the right flank, but
Chad Thach banged his effort into the crossbar, after
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's cute tap-on.
It was thus 1-0 to the Curaçao side at the break, and they emerged for the second half entirely composed once again. This had them repeat the containment tactics that had served them so well at the beginning of the first half, and with Molino playing the defensive stopper to perfection, the Birds went nowhere fast. 58 minutes in, Slovenian forward Lovro Mlakar found some space away from
Raúl Himadas, and played Olli-Pekka Pohjanheimo in for his second goal.
Grilled were clearly frustrated at their lack of return, and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul was definitely trying hard, but it was evident that he was not yet back to near his best. The Birds had better luck trying from slightly further out, and Leite had to be alert to block a sidewinder from Chia in the 74th. Several minutes on,
Phillip Nagata spotted
Genki Nagano calling for it on the left side of the box, and his crisp assist would finally come off.
The Birds really wanted a draw at least, and the final ten minutes would see them lay siege to the Pirates penalty area, but Cronin held firm with his effective man-marking of Marzuki. Seeing this, Tian would withdraw Marzuki and
Raúl Himadas for
Hwang Teck Fu and
Mohsen El Khateeb with five minutes left, but it took
Kendell El Khateeb's entrance to create one last chance down the middle, in injury time.
Lim An Keng left it for
Aw Keng Chuan, but the midfielder could not put his weight behind the shot with Wiels encroaching, and Leite had an easy save to make.
