Eventual Escalation
Tacón Takes Two
The Birds puffed their way to a close win against Andorran II.3 team Sport Lisboa e Escaldes, who participated in their first friendly for three weeks. It hadn't gone too well for the visitors after their 8-0 thrashing of Japanese club CDN Kyoto Purple F.C., as they lost all of their intervening league matches, and will have to win their next two in order to stay up.
They do have some excellent players, though, with longstanding Italian Number Ten David Cupaiolo a force in midfield since his arrival from Fispo FC ten seasons ago, and Chilean captain Pere Schaub known to lead by example from the front. It was as well that French distributor Wahid Msekni was not on the plane, or otherwise Grilled could have been in real trouble.
They weren't doing too good to start with, even with the transfer-listed
Shiya Shaahee giving a good impression of a trequartista in behind
Leong Wan Kang. It was a position alien to the orthodox winger, but the fits he gave to Escaldes centreback Clément Robin will do his valuation no harm at all.
It was the visitors who exploited the width of the pitch at The Cooking Pot more, however, as they sought to lure
Liang Liyong and
Ling Fuquan wide whenever possible. Right winger Antonio Muscarello, a testy character at the best of times, won the ire of the fans in attendance when he brazenly dribbled the ball away after committing a foul, behaviour which referee Frederik Radich Christensen could hardly overlook.
Their endeavour did lure the Birds into several mistakes, though, the pick of which would be
Hilal Bakhtiar's insane backpass that Pere Schaub would have scored from had he hit the target. Escaldes' high-energy play continued, with Alejo Ivan Insúa picking up a yellow too, before Fernando Tacón smashed the opener in after 31 minutes, pivoting on his left leg to catch Muscarello's short cross beautifully.
Tacón would follow that up with another two minutes later, after a fine free-kick from
Walter Ross was pushed aside by Giovannetti. The Birds had committed far too many men, and when Quinto Parapar managed to release a clearance down the right channel with Ling's attempted block not coming off, Muscarello raced off unopposed to claim a second assist quite simply.
While the Italian winger's effectiveness was never in doubt, his temparament left much to be desired, as he made the unwise move of putting his hand on linesman Hugo Diniz Lima, after Lima had called an ambiguous situation in Grilled defender
Rashid bin Ahmad's favour. That was a second booking for Muscarello, and an invaluable reprive for Grilled.
With the rather less explosive Cosme Pedrós Escaldes' only remaining permanent threat on the flanks, and Tacón not as successful dividing his time between the middle and outside, Grilled reverted to their more usual central style with
Djan Bacelar on at half time. Pedrós did conjure up a superb chance in the 52nd minute with a quality cross long to Wilhelm Nilsson, who didn't get good contact luckily for
Hovaness Noubaryan.
Escaldes' penchant for contact finally came back to haunt them just before the hour mark, as Robin pushed into
Leong Wan Kang a bit too hard for the referee's liking. Bacelar had a chat with Ross before yielding responsibility, and the Austrian backup lived up to expectations with a nerveless grounder into the left corner.
With twenty minutes remaining, Luis Alcántara figured that he might as well go for it with
Gleb Dorogan on for Rashid, and told to push upfield whenever possible. This left a few more gaps, and Tacón made his move for a hat-trick, only to wind up with a card after overselling a tumble on losing the ball.
It was finally the Birds' turn to shine, with
Liang Liyong's constant plugging away at Alejo Ivan Insúa finally exhausting the Colombian. Liang's sheer unwillingness to quit allowed him to scuff a low pass across, and
Leong Wan Kang, who got the memorable winner against FC buðbrøl last Wednesday, again dived in to tie things up.
Extra time loomed before
Tian Yonghang embellished his solid work in midfield with a more typical placed strike from mid-range.
Sandy Fu was Alcántara's third and final substitution with victory in the bag, with the departing Leong basking in the adulation of an appreciative crowd.