Sarajevo Slip By
Tian's Regret
Grilled were stopped in the second round of the Masters by Cape Verde Campeonato Nacional leaders FK Željeznicar Sarajevo, who relied on their faultless finishing to knock the Birds out. Grilled had chances enough of their own, but the loss of two of their standouts for the home stretch doomed them to ultimate defeat.
It was a lesser-seen Birds eleven that marched out in Istanbul for their first Thursday Masters experience, as
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim was left on the bench. In his stead,
Rashid bin Ahmad made his club international debut at leftback. In compensation,
Low Aik Jia and
Wong Ping Shun set themselves wide, as Grilled aimed to make up for the absence of a third striker with extra running down the wings.
Sarajevo kept to their textbook 3-5-2, with Hungarian head coach Tamás Lipták known for adhering strictly to the fundamentals - forwards Bertus Heetla and Amin Sufi stayed in their assigned positions, counter to the popular trend of defending from the front, a practice mirrored in the other positions, who too had an emphasis on maintaining shape.
Old-school it may have been, but Lipták had fitted his men to the system well, as evidenced by their nine match winning streak coming into Sarajevo's first-ever taste of the Masters. There was no faulting the commitment of the men in dark blue, and Spaniard Juan Carlos Ataz collected the first booking of the game by catching
Abdul bin Jantan late.
bin Jantan struggled to get back to his feet, but was chasing after
Tian Yonghang in celebration in seconds -
Zhao Jing Wei hit a inch-perfect ball left to
Low Aik Jia, who gleefully skipped around Anthony Quartier in one fluid motion. Tian saw it open up, and broke into a run just right to meet Low's incoming ball across the goal. It was the captain's second in as many Masters outing, and a testament to his new indispensability to the Birds.
Unfortunately, this got to the players' heads, and they let the equaliser in straight from the kick-off. They should have known better, having pulled this themselves so often, but were still left undermanned as former Syrian U-20 midfielder Omar Hamwi ran at the defence fearlessly. Seeing Manuel Aréchiga call for it, Hamwi knocked it tantalizingly before him, and Aréchiga won the footrace against
Ling Fuquan quite convincingly.
Grilled were clearly missing an in-form Mohd Safri, and as Sarajevo held the line, they revealed just how they had managed to dominate their national scene in recent months. An anticipationary sliding interception from Ataz allowed teammate Abdessabour Rais to win it, and the Tunisian's directness ended with Anthony Quartier swinging in from the left, completing the sweeping move in one breathtaking sequence.
This would have been worrying for the Grilled supporters, had they not cancelled Sarajevo's advantage in turn without missing a beat. It came through an unexpected source, with
Rashid bin Ahmad being selected by fate to receive the ball after
Chow Ying Lee headed it on. Rashid had only scored six times for the Birds before this, but his full-blooded whack happened to be sufficient.
There was then a lull in the scoring, but not for want of trying, as Grilled parked themselves in Sarajevo's half. Their opponents were arguably the more threatening, however, as the specialized in lightning-quick ripostes, with Aréchiga using his considerable explosiveness to great effect.
The fifteen-minute break re-injected urgency into the sides, and after some minutes of living on the edge, Sarajevo retook the lead. The Birds were making little headway, and once Zhao was dispossessed near the centre circle, a well-flighted pass found Ataz lurking right in front of the Birds' penalty area, and his half-volley took just the barest of deflections past
Wong Tian Han.
Low Aik Jia continued his ceaseless running up the left to create his second of the match, as he looked up before lobbing it across in the direction of
Abdul bin Jantan. The Grilled veteran threw himself at it without a second thought, as did two Sarajevo defenders, and the ball flew from the muddle and into the top corner.
The goalscorer would however not be able to continue, nor was even aware of his feat, as he lay motionless in a heap with a badly gashed cheek. Replays showed that although he had met the ball a split second earlier than his challengers, Adolf Mašát had in turn cracked the side of his skull into Abdul's face. It was clearly unintentional given that both had their eyes firmly closed, but seeing as bin Jantan had to be ferried off still unconscious, the severity of the collision could not be underestimated.
Having lost an important midfielder once more in the middle of a Masters game,
Djan Bacelar hesitated for just a moment, before giving the newly-signed
Clément Meyer the go-ahead. Meyer himself didn't quite seem to believe that his debut would be on such a stage, but he certainly threw himself into the fray after getting over that.
While Meyer won his first high ball with some authority, his understandable lack of understanding with his colleagues limited his impact, and he soon ended up doing a poor man's impression of a water-carrier. Despite this, the Birds were the more likely to edge ahead at this point, with Tian nailed-on to score from the restart, but for a magic save from Jani Pöytälaakso.
Then, it all fell apart. Grilled were pressing with confidence in the 70th minute, when one of
Wong Ping Shun's usually-unstoppable driving runs was stopped by Dušan Nešić, who managed to come away with the ball. Before they could adjust, Austrian wingback Johann Stumvoll had advanced almost to the goalline on the overlap, and his fiercely whipped in cross was met by Aréchiga with a perfect strike that squeezed into the only gap between Wong and his near post.
It was perhaps not over yet, given that Grilled had fought back twice already... but for a very, very silly act from
Low Aik Jia. The excitable young wing wizard felt that Stumvoll had clearly been offside, but with referee Jan Hearst unreceptive, took his displeasure out on Mauro Perna. Having already been carded for petulance, this was his one-way ticket out of the game.
Low was immediately mortified, and attempted to stay on, before being escorted into the tunnel close to tears. Sarajevo instantly reconfigured themselves to make the most of this break, with Perna repositioning himself in front of Mašát as an auxiliary sweeper.
Grilled might yet have survived, but when Tian peeled away only to send his shot wide in the 84th, whatever remained of their resistance seeped away. Almost immediately, Aréchiga was replaced with Dutch veteran Bertus Heetla, who had instructions to hold the ball up, which he did with infinite patience.
