Warriors Come Close
The Wolff Of East Coast
The Birds had to dig very deep indeed to get past a frighteningly effective East Coast Warriors side to get to the quarterfinals of the Cup. They had to come from behind twice, and only took the lead with nine minutes remaining, in the action-packed blockbuster that probably took months off the travelling support's lifespans.
The Warriors had not been beaten in the last fifteen competitive games, a run that stretches back to their 1-3 away defeat at Saraca Swashbucklers in December, and canny head coach Orionas Roumeliotis must be due a share of the credit. Today, he went back to a three-strong defence, intending to man-mark Grilled's forwards into oblivion.
This plan did work well enough most of the time, but the hosts had to first deal with a dicey situation four minutes in. From an indirect free-kick wide right,
Wong Ping Shun floated in a marvelous cross. However,
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim timed his leap a split-second off, and the relieved Ricardo Villate was able to clutch it to his chest when it came through without a touch.
Grilled were dominating handily enough, when disaster struck -
Tian Yonghang was dallying while trying to spot the correct pass, and Polish centreback Mariusz Wodara took the ball off him. In the ensuing counter, Warriors pinged it at high speed down the middle as they converged on the Grilled goal in numbers, and Wodara fittingly ended the move by sweeping it past
Wong Tian Han.
The stunned Birds then took another one to the gut right from the kick-off, as Warriors' Valeriy Ogarkov dribbled past Wong on the inside. This exposed Grilled's unprepared defence, which had been shaping up in preparation to resume attacking pressure, and former South African national player Stephen Ainslie unselfishly spread it to partner Wolff Lachenschmid for the easiest of finishes.
The Birds' gaffer
Niculae Stanca was up and about now, though he would be slightly mollified as his men reduced the shock of that goal immediately. There would be no goofing about at all as they restarted the match a second time, and Wong repaid Ogarkov's favour with a charge down the left.
Woon Shun An received the return ball, and the Warriors' close marking proved a liability in this situation as Woon found the space he required to lash in a successful grounder.
Wong remained Grilled's main creative outlet as the hosts strangled play up front, and another link-up between him and Woon led to Gosbert Krug tripping the goalscorer up. Encouraged by that, Wong continued putting the crosses in, and
Gene Filippone chose a great time to score his first one for his new club, a classic stout defender's header right on the edge of the six-yard box.
Although they had lost their lead, the Warriors were in no way dismayed, and they arguably had the better of it for the remainder of the half.
Zhao Jing Wei's third yellow of the season will see him sit out Sunday's league game, and after that, Ogarkov nearly astonished everyone in attendance by pulling out an impossible-looking attempt with his back to goal. Luckily,
Wong Tian Han was alert to it, and even managed to hold on to the ball.
The half-time body language of the away section was far from ideal, as the discerning fans recognized that their team were having a very testing time indeed. That said, Grilled began the second half the more positive side, but Spanish goalie Ricardo Villate ensured that it would take something special to beat him.
Wolff Lachenschmid supplied just that at the other end of the pitch, as he knocked down a clearance from
Ling Fuquan before volleying it into the net. The magical development had commentators asking each other if he had precognitive abilities, even as Ling sank to the grass in evident agony.
With barely twenty minutes remaining, and still a goal down, the Birds were getting hot under the collar. They at least had the consolation that the Warriors were beginning to think that they had done enough scoring, but with Villante in such form, there was no reason to think that they could find an equaliser in time. When even Woon's powerful blast in the 74th could only force yet another parry, and a resounding "
Olé" from the appreciative home crowd, a few heads dropped among the Grilled players.
Indeed, the Warriors' chants grew louder each passing minute as they prepared to celebrate another notable accomplishment, and a lesser side might well have been intimidated by the energy going about. However, Grilled were ultimately made of sterner stuff than that, and with it all on the line,
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim built up his reputation as a big-game player by coolly stepping up before his man in the 79th minute, before keeping his shot down, which was easier said than done in the circumstances.
Coincidentally, the after-goal stoppage also saw the Warriors substitute their hero Wolff Lachenschmid for Dutch Number Nine Ellert Nijpels, which had been signalled long before the Grilled attack became lethal. Roumeliotis, who evidently had expected his team to see the match out, was stony-faced as the change was made, recognizing that Lachenschmid was now once again needed.
There was barely time for regret, as Mohd Safri punished the home team at the next opportunity. Rodolphe Deharbe had done a superb job on the Grilled striker for eighty minutes, but all that good work was lost in an instant when Mohd Safri got away from him as Zhao hit his cross. That extra metre of space was all Mohd Safri needed to bring it down, and even Villate's lightning reactions could not stop him from that range.
From singing about the next round, the Warriors' fans were now yelling at referee Janne Ahokainen to extend the game, as their team tried feverishly to find that critical goal. Grilled skipper
Tian Yonghang fought bravely to stay on after tweaking his calf muscle in that frenzied period, but despite the four minutes tacked on, it would be the Birds who would leave Long Beach Park carrying the torch.
