Pep In Their Step
Simonnets Twice
Grilled Birds racked up another good win in the second round of the World Battle tournament, in seeing off Swiss II.1 challengers FC Pepinos Borrachos 3-2. Borrachos are certainly a club on the up from their three league wins thus far, without going into their recent expansions into Puerto Rico, Scotland, Liechtenstein - with a women's team, Tamil Elephants United, set up in Sri Lanka this March.
Notable amongst their starting eleven would be new midfielder Robert Pfeifer, who had just been signed back from Moscow's FC Blue Arrows for some S$6 million. The 30 year-old acted as a second striker to target man Sébastien Simonnet at times, with Italian comrade Alfredo Marco Strazzullo serving in a deeper role. Captain Daniele Krüsi along with Frenchman Joaquim Moreira set up as defensive fullbacks, as highly-rated 33 year-old goalkeeper Michele Melius guarded their goal.
Hwang Teck Fu had gained himself something of a reputation from how he was quite explicitly man-marked by Marlo Zurschmitten throughout, which did allow
Chad Thach and
Chia Kwang Tse more freedom to move.
Lim An Keng returned in midfield with it being
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's turn to be dropped, and in any case
Ananda Hettiarachchi had their number; the Sri Lankan star steamed into the space created by Hwang about three minutes in, and only hair-trigger reaction speed by Melius prevented Borrachos from falling behind then.
Grilled were not one to let seeming vulnerability slip, as the continued tussle between Hwang and Zurschmitten dominated the early going. Nobody knew quite what to make of their struggling from one side of the pitch to the other, but
Chia Kwang Tse somehow found himself free with the ball at his feet at the head of the box in the sixth minute. Christophe Deckert hesitated leaving
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko, who had parked himself in support, and Chia had the gap he needed to dodge through and score.
The fans could hardly complain about a lack of action as Chia was back at it two minutes later, hitting the bar with Melius flinging himself backwards for the lob. This did lead to Borrachos' first serious attack, which ironically saw Zurschmitten relieve himself of his marking duties to make the final shot - one that
Radomil Marcol had to stretch for. There was no telling where the ball was going, really, and Ananda made it 2-0 in the 13th minute after
Genki Nagano sliced it out from the back seemingly at random.
Borrachos looked competent whenever they could settle on the ball, that much was true, and Arnold Enz showed just how well he could strike it three minutes later, as he laid it on a plate for Sébastien Simonnet from over twenty-five yards away. Grilled restored their two-goal lead through
Lim An Keng's speculative volley some six minutes on from
Phillip Nagata's cutback, and
Hisham Zubari would soon after be booked for going in hard on Simonnet, who had to be the hosts' best player thus far.
FC Pepinos Borrachos sat deeper as the half went on, which did wonders for their defensive solidity, although it also made counterattacks harder to come by. The match entered something of a deadlock for about half an hour as Borrachos bided their time, before springing forward upon
Wu Ping De's 58th minute miss. Melius' big goal kick had Arnold Enz free on goal after Gion Büttiker tied the retreating
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko up, but Marcol rushed out just in time.
Borrachos improved as the match wore on, and they reduced again 77 minutes in, on a rare Henry Schierling advance against the absent Nagata. Of the several available targets, the Swiss winger chose Simonnet, and was duly vindicated with a crisp strike that bent in at the left post. Grilled were really flagging now, and Borrachos thundered fore for the equaliser with a barrage of long balls, that Zubari and Genki barely headed off.
