Fjell Not Felled
Tranamil Excites
Grilled Birds appeared on point to progress into the final thirty-two of the Dominion International Cup, but Norwegian II.3 favourites Fjell IL staged a magnificent second-half coup, to claim the point that they needed. It was a bitter pill to swallow for
Dan Alstani, who had done everything correct for so long, only to have it all fall to pieces in the final twenty.
Fjell IL came into this match unbeaten, having drawn FC Knysna before drubbing Pendre Panthers 5-1, but wily young Spanish head coach Enrique Ozores had an ace up his sleeve: a counterpunching 4-4-2, instead of the vanilla 3-5-2 that he had relied on for the previous games. This had attacking Puerto Rican Number Ten Omar Vendrell sacrificed with Marius Năpar dropping into defence, but it was not like Ozores lacked options with the depth of the Fjell squad.
Grilled knew exactly one response, and it would be to throw themselves at Fjell's back four as early and often as possible. This actually didn't work out as badly as feared, what with Alstani's jibes about using width seemingly actually believed by the opposition for a time. They must have figured out that he was fibbing by the time
Ananda Hettiarachchi ran full tilt at the defence in the seventeenth minute, but Hungarian skipper Atanas Emilov couldn't slow him then, and it was 1-0.
The Norwegians were soon the ones who were worrying as they found the Birds more careful on the ball than they had anticipated, and even when it was lost, there was usually no prospect for a quick break. Former Belarus national U-20 fullback Israel Zano was lucky to stay on after getting a chunk of
Chia Kwang Tse on the half-hour, and Fjell inexplicably dropped back on the free-kick, allowing
Lim An Keng to come within some ten yards, and simply bend it into the far top corner.
Enrique Ozores was on his feet now, but this was not going to be easy for Fjell to reverse at short notice.
Ananda Hettiarachchi disturbed the peace with an aggressive flying header 35 minutes in, only batted away with difficulty by Italian goalkeeper Marco Noser.
This was followed by the irony of the Birds pulling off the best counterattack of the match thus far, after Atanas Emilov's dipping free-kick got saved by
Radomil Marcol.
Chad Thach might not have gotten his original shot off as he wanted, coming down the left, but he converted it into an unorthodox lob with Marius Năpar all but lying down in his way. Noser backpedalled with agility, but the replays would confirm that the ball had fully crossed his goalline, before he clawed it aside.
There would be additional horror for the Norwegian team in the few minutes remaining, as Bulgarian winger Haydar Orta appeared to have no idea what he was doing with his dribble back into his own box, 41 minutes in. The pass back at Noser was entirely unconvincing too, and it would take great bravery by the goalkeeper to throw himself at
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's feet, for a painful block.
Hwang Teck Fu might yet have converted the rebound, but the defenders filled in for Noser then.
Three-nil at half-time was more than Grilled Birds could have dared to dream of, surely, but as they would find, this was not yet an insurmountable lead. They definitely looked a lot lazier as the second half began with Fjell now pushing the face, and a scare four minutes in saw redoubtable Chilean attacker Asier Tranamil make to take Alfons D'Andrès's flat cross first time.
Genki Nagano was there, however, and made the interception look easy.
Grilled were holding on posseession but doing less and less with it, and there just was the sense that Fjell would get one back sometime. This indeed happened soon after
Lim An Keng's attempt in the 67th minute, where he got altogether too casual about his final chip, having done the hard work to edge past Noser. Fjell then showed what they were all about with three on-the-ground passes traversing about the full length of the pitch, and despite
Radomil Marcol stoppping Alberto Oliveira Martinho's initial effort, Haydar Orta would find the net after battling his way back inside.
The Birds were shaken perhaps more than they should have been by conceding, and would suddenly look like a high school club in the ensuing six minutes or so. That was well enough for Fjell to pull level, and through no other than three-time Golden Boot winner Tranamil. Grilled had barely registered his 73rd minute strike off a sharp one-two with strike partner Martinho, when he had finished it off yet again with
Hisham Zubari persistently a half-second behind his moves.
Dan Alstani had
Paulino Trindade and
Mason Glendinning warming up at that, and although both would enter right before the three minutes of added time, there would be no heroics from either today.
