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| FIXTURE HISTORY |
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| Season 84 | L | 2 - 1 | Tournament (Group Phase) |
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Jasiu Lord It
Sixteen Minute Blitz
Grilled Birds were defeated in their return to the King of Football Cup tournament, in their opening Group I fixture against English III.10 headliners Jasiu Hotspur. The former Conspirator Memorial Cup holders raced to a quickfire four-goal lead against a shellshocked Birds side, and although they had to play the final nine minutes a man down after Grilled's praiseworthy reversal in the second half, they stayed the course for the three points without too much trouble.
Jasiu had tasted defeat in an official match but once this season, eight days ago in the English Cup quarterfinals against English Premier leaders Sneaky Squirrels. This was a resume that was frankly hard to match, but entirely justifiable by the quality of their first team. 35 year-old national star Dwayne Gilmurray was their core in central midfield, with Elliot Stewart also capped for England. Former Latvian international and cupwinner Mindaugs Rantiņš served as their main forward, and if their backline did not quite live up to these heady heights, ex-Mexican international goalkeeper Alejandro Romano would prove a safe pair of hands in goal.
There would not be much testing of Jasiu's back three in any case, as they rocked Grilled with their one-track attacking posture right out of the gates.
Hisham Zubari was no spring chicken himself, but he sadly gave the impression of being entirely inadequate against Gilmurray's schemes. French forward Bastien Serra won a free-kick off
Genki Nagano in the fifth minute, and Elliot Stewart put his team ahead from a short free-kick.
The English side were only getting started, as Grilled wilted under Jasiu's unrelenting gegenpress with Belgian gaffer Dean Breacker watching smugly from the dugout.
Johann Schwietzer had shown himself vulnerable to raw pace often enough, and Rantiņš combined that with trickery to bypass him and draw
Radomil Marcol out before scoring in the tenth minute. The dust had barely settled when Haiti star Hervé Valmond swung in from the left, and fed Anthony Fitzmichael for a perfectly-placed right footer from fifteen yards.
Three-nil was not enough for Jasiu, and it became four in the sixteenth minute with Grilled struggling to take the game to their opponents. Gilmurray went it himself for this one, as Serra drew Genki with him in bringing the ball back out after trapping a long pass in the box.
Chia Kwang Tse didn't spot the Jasiu skipper's run early enough, and Schwietzer's sliding block arrived a little too late.
This was more than a bit embarrassing, especially for
Radomil Marcol, who might have stopped three out of four on a better day. Grilled were not helped by Jasiu knowing exactly how to protect a lead, which had the Birds recycling the ball fruitlessly on most of their possessions.
Chad Thach was one of Grilled's few bright spots as he worked tirelessly mostly in trying to bring
Phillip Nagata into the game, but Italian fullback Stefano Ternullo knew just what he had to do.
If Grilled Birds seemed done as they trudged off at the end of a disappointing half, it was an entirely different story for them after the break.
Dan Alstani appeared to have done a stellar job of reframing the task, and the Birds finally looked threatening as they went at Jasiu in a more direct fashion.
Ananda Hettiarachchi's smooth strides powered him past Jordan Cooper in the 55th minute right as
Lim An Keng made his move past Fitzmichael... only for Romano to land an unbelievable one-handed save.
The Birds were stopping at nothing to break their duck, but Jasiu were certainly not making it easy, as they defended in numbers whenever they were without the ball. It took a sudden change of possession about the 72nd minute for Grilled to finally score, as
Hisham Zubari picked a rare stray pass off.
Chia Kwang Tse appeared the likely target as he made his run immediately, but Zubari instead went for
Wu Ping De's follow-up, which paid off handsomely as he curled it home from a narrow angle.
Gilmurray would be booked in the aftermath for tripping Zubari during the build-up, as the match roared back into life. The Birds won it back from the kick-off in short order, and
Johann Schwietzer made one of his magical long passes from his own half straight to
Hwang Teck Fu - who unfortunately squeezed his effort marginally wide. Gilmurray was back in the thick of things a couple of minutes later, but his own low drive was slightly off, to
Radomil Marcol's visible relief.
The game then got a lot more intriguing in the 80th minute, as Schwietzer reprised his connection with Hwang from deep - and this time the Grilled Number Nine would keep his head against Romano to bury it in the bottom left corner. This was all the more as Dwayne Gilmurray got sent off seconds after the restart, as he went in hard on Ananda to recover the ball. Jasiu's defence was up to the task, sadly for Grilled, and they saw out the remaining time with more than a little cunning.
