Bold At Malcriado
Chia's Turn
Grilled Birds ousted three-time Bolivian Challenger Cup winners Dinamo Malcriado 6-1 in the fourth round of the World Battle tournament, and while
Leongīns Luško made an unofficial debut on the left of defence, it was
Chia Kwang Tse who made the headlines with a hat-trick born of graft. The 31 year-old had been mostly playing like a man possessed since the Birds' Singapore Cup exit, and his sheer workrate left Malcriado with no answer today.
Dinamo Malcriado had just returned to Division Two under the guidance of Slovakian head coach Radovan Tomovčík, who had overseen the signings of domestic stars Cándido Calvo and Dimas Farah back from Spain and Norway respectively. Both would start on the left side today along with the local-born Fang Fubing between them, with former national youth forward Eiji Watanabe as captain. Iranian rightback Meysam Sheikh and veteran Turkish winger Yıldıray Uyar were the exceptions to an otherwise all-Bolivian starting XI.
Leongīns Luško standing in for
Genki Nagano at left centreback aside, the Grilled Birds more or less picked itself, with the possible exception of
Mohd Marzuki Khairul on the left instead of
Wu Ping De. A cautious first ten minutes would be followed by Farah lighting it up from behind, sending over an impossible-looking fifty-yarder to Eiji, who however couldn't keep the shot down.
Radomil Marcol's big goal kick let
Hwang Teck Fu free in turn, and he came slightly closer with a lob off the bar.
Malcriado goalie Yasar Aliaga would confer with his defence after that near miss, but there was no helping Christian Alcócer's misplaced pass six minutes later, which had
Chia Kwang Tse intercept and score after a final burst of speed. The hosts were still very much alive despite the setback, and 18 year-old central midfielder Sinforoso Mónaco made up in sheer activity what he lacked in temperament. A more-experienced player might have given up the chase upon losing the ball when he did in the 30th minute, but Mónaco wasn't thinking that far ahead, and won it back sufficiently for Eiji Watanabe to take it from there - one-all!
It was very much one exchange after another leading up to this, but Malcriado fell away once Chia responded with a second from a strong run from
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko; Fang Fubing's lightning raid from kick-off was handled expertly by Marcol, and the Birds came good on
Ananda Hettiarachchi's return carry. His dribble appeared deceptively tame as he meandered out wide, before suddenly cutting in and sliding it through for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul, who had gotten into Meysam Sheikh's blind spot.
The match would stand at 3-1 by half-time, though there remained some high-octane excitement leading into the break. A tangle between Fabricio Castellón and
Ananda Hettiarachchi won Grilled a free-kick about sixteen yards out, and
Leongīns Luško nearly deposited it into the top left corner, but for Aliaga's remarkable reach. Yıldıray Uyar held it up intelligently as Meysam Sheikh raced ahead, and this time it was
Radomil Marcol to flaunt his reaction time, with a reflex block.
There were few indications that Grilled Birds were markedly superior, for all their two-goal lead, and Dinamo Malcriado had them pinned back for the first several minutes of the second half. Eiji Watanabe gave the Birds coaching staff a reminder of Luško's shortcomings as he left the Latvian veteran standing like a statue more than once, but strike partner Cándido Calvo was the one to come closest with his header off a long corner in the 51st minute. Marcol was nowhere close, as it skidded off the outside of the far goalpost.
This tempo from Malcriado could not last, however, and Sinforoso Mónaco's positioning flaws would only become more and more evident, as Grilled grew into the game.
Ananda Hettiarachchi would for one read him better than most, and with
Hisham Zubari sitting back, he was often free to exploit the gaps in the opposition midfield. One of those had him draw the defence towards him in the 59th minute, opening up an obvious pass to
Chad Thach for the fourth goal.
That also made for
Mohd Marzuki Khairul's final moments on the pitch, with
Dan Alstani having had
Wu Ping De warming up on the touchlines for a time. Wu made it his mission to challenge Yıldıray Uyar upon coming on, but the next goal came through the centre once again, after
Johann Schwietzer drove the ball straight upfield upon it being rotated back to him.
Chia Kwang Tse needed no second invitation to take José Félix Quino on, and he found a sliver of space between Aliaga and his near post, to thump it home for his hat-trick!
The game would be paused as Chia broke out in a little dance behind the goal in celebration, which the home fans took remarkably well, helped by this after all being an extracurricular activity. Malcriado remained unable to cope with Grilled's constant pressure afterwards, and
Chad Thach pounced on an ill-advised turn by a defender eleven minutes on, for the sixth. Hwang might have gotten another but for Aliaga clawing his high lob aside, but it might have been disallowed anyway, as he got booked for following through into Christian Alcócer's shins.
Hwang's foul finally had the Mandarin@s Malcriad@s worked up, and they would soon have more to get up in arms about. Fang had carved out a path for Dimas Farah to cleave his way inside with his own attention-catching dribble, but
Radomil Marcol denied a second consolation goal with Farah's shot being unconvincing. It did still look enough of a threat for
Ananda Hettiarachchi to clatter him from behind, which had the referee dither before flashing a second yellow card, to the crowd's disapproval.
