Sour Note
Interholzinger Plunder
Grilled Birds were knocked out of the Dominion International Cup by Costa Rican II.1 leaders Lemon Pirates, who share with them the distinction of having won all four of their major national cups. The Limon-based club ran up a three-goal advantage in a frankly embarrassing first half for the Birds, and despite a stupendous individual effort from
Hwang Teck Fu, they would hold on to go through.
This was, of course, also Grilled's final test before their Singapore Cup semifinals versus United Legends FC on Wednesday, which had
Dan Alstani's selection scrutinized for any clues as to his setup for that. There would in the end be next to no changes from the side that had lost 3-4 to rumanos last Friday, other than for
Lim An Keng starting at forward today. The Pirates' response was a 4-5-1 built around national playmaker Jeiner Ortiz, with stopper Paulo Acuña hoping to join him and captain Juan Fuertes in the
Los Ticos squad. Combative Swiss striker Léo Melin made up their attack, with long-serving S$20.4 million French goalkeeper Kilian Lebacq as the Number One.
Entirely unlike the game against rumanos, it was the Pirates who rocked Grilled Birds from the starting whistle, with their players having evidently recognized that it was bad to be caught on the defensive. They were right, and they had the skills to make life very hard for Grilled indeed; Melin would have had them ahead in the fifth minute but for a hair-trigger save from
Radomil Marcol, but the Birds goalie would be helpless two minutes later when Damir Interholzinger left everyone behind on his sprint, as the Austrian left winger drilled it into his unguarded far post from a generous angle.
Grilled were at a loss as to how to respond, although they did chain together some slick passing combinations on occasion. They went further behind in the 15th minute, as the Pirates exploited their newly-assembled back two with a free-kick bluff. Former Brazilian U-20 fullback Alex Carlos Montenegro made as if to shoot, before slipping the ball to the right of the wall, with several of his teammates surging forward in tandem.
Hisham Zubari nearly got to Interholzinger, but not quite as he widened his last stride, and banged a second goal home.
There would be more possession to no reward for the Birds, who found no way past the Pirates' massed ranks. Their best opportunity of the half fell to
Hwang Teck Fu in the 32nd, as the striker crossed over
Chia Kwang Tse's sharp cut inside, only to shoot right at Lebacq. Contrariwise, Montenegro executed his magnificent bicycle kick wonderfully five minutes later on David Chacón's lob, and in doing so made his Brazilian forebears proud.
It was almost difficult to feel hard done by, after conceding from such an incredible effort, but
Genki Nagano certainly thought otherwise from how he heckled his teammates afterwards. Grilled looked a changed team in the second half, but their initial industry soon moderated to calculated patience. This came off well enough, after
Johann Schwietzer mimicked the Pirates with a free-kick through ball for
Hisham Zubari. The midfielder would be tied up by Ortiz at the critical moment, but
Hwang Teck Fu was there, and he held Chacón off to reduce!
The finish certainly wasn't pretty, what with Hwang stumbling into the sliced strike that went in off Lebacq's gloves, but the striker was beyond caring by then. In any case, Hwang would follow it up with his second goal within two minutes, as Grilled managed one of their most-direct advances of the game from
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's exploratory run. The centrebacks were well aware of what Hwang could do, but had no way of stopping him as he powered onto Marzuki's assist.
The Pirates found more success pitting themselves against Grilled's defence, and hit paydirt when Schwietzer made his first explicit error, in not reading
Genki Nagano's cue to play the offside trap in the 68th minute. Léo Melin sprang it to restore their lead to 4-2 after a one-on-one, with it becoming five after
Radomil Marcol couldn't fully deal with Effie Barazany's 77th minute try. On another day, his batting of the relatively-weak shot aside would not have been a problem, but unfortunately Paulo Acuña was waiting for just something like that.
Alstani and the coaching staff didn't look pleased at that from the sidelines, but Grilled would at least show good spirit in getting right back at the Pirates, from kick-off.
Genki Nagano joined in the push, and wound up being the furthest man forward as the attack devolved into chaos. Genki vaulted Juan Fuertes's sliding tackle to put in a drive, and while it was blocked by Lebacq,
Hwang Teck Fu pounced to make it a hat-trick.
Hwang would not pause to celebrate as he ran to retrieve the ball, given that his team remained two goals behind, but there would be no remedy for that for all of Grilled's toil in the ten minutes remaining.
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko and
Chad Thach entered towards the end, but it was far too late.
