Whacked Aside
Ling Rings In
Grilled entered the finals of the Worldwide Allgäu-Guests III tournament following a hard-fought 4-3 victory over Indian cupwinners Whackers. Had they managed to keep all eleven men on the pitch, it could have turned out quite differently, but the first-half dismissal of former Indian youth international Dhirendra Banerjee allowed the Birds that bit of extra breathing room that they needed.
Although his Belgian foil Walid Kindi had been the toast of the tournament thus far, leading the scorers' table with seven goals, it had been Banerjee who had been the driving force behind Whackers' offense, as he asserted by being nearly unplayable in the opening half-hour.
Despite Grilled having started with an extra man at the back, due to
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim being completely left out of the squad this time, Banerjee time and again eluded both
Ling Fuquan and
Gene Filippone with his unpredictable darting movements. One of these gave rise to the first goal, as he opened room for Ignacio Mayor to lash it in after a huge run-up.
Showing that he was not one to take a lead for granted, Banerjee's next act was to boot the ball casually away from
Wong Tian Han, who had gone to collect it for a quick restart - but this was spotted by the referee, who didn't appreciate it. After a series of false starts, the Birds finally managed a clear sight at goal, with
Low Aik Jia doing well to put his weight behind the final shot.
Taken early on the fly, that surprised Whackers goalie Udhyoth Chalermsan, but not Banerjee, who looked to have made himself a hero with a spectacular jumping block on the line. However, the linesman flagged immediately afterwards, and it was decided that the forward had led with his upper arm into the ball. Such was the speed of the ball that replays were inconclusive, but in any case Banerjee received his second booking, and had to go.
Whackers emerged the stronger from the incident after protests had died down, though, and they went up 2-0 through Büke Çelen, after good work down the left flank. It could even have been three before half-time had Scottish winger Dave Glover's audacious backwards header gone it, but fortunately for Grilled,
Gene Filippone just happened to be in the way.
It was the dark blue and yellow colours of Whackers that were waving proudly as half-time was called, but this also meant that
Djan Bacelar had the opportunity to make adjustments to Grilled's strategy. The Birds doubled down on the aggression, and this paid off in the 51st minute, with
Chow Ying Lee streaking through the middle to reduce.
For the first time in the match, Grilled were dictating the direction, and Whackers began to look distinctly uncomfortable without Banerjee to help hold it up. Following a patient build-up, the equaliser arrived through
Woon Shun An, with
Tian Yonghang timing his through pass magnificently.
Whackers were not without other attacking talent, though, and Çelen rose to the forefront with a mazy dribble three minutes later, to record his second of the game. Delighted at having been thrown this unexpected cushion, Whackers coach Daniel Cisar ordered his men back to defend it, which they did quite competently for a while.
The extra man began to become instrumental, though, and with Kindi mostly shut down by double-teaming, Grilled were able to inch closer and closer upfield and compress the action. It came to a head when
Low Aik Jia beat all comers down the right in an electric dash, and
Chow Ying Lee was on hand to provide the final touch after the Whackers defence overran the cross.
With it all up in the air again, the opposition struggled to readjust to attacking. It was not that the Birds were all that fresh either, as Chow showed some signs of heat exhaustion when he gave up on a chase early.
Wong Ping Shun for one still had reserves in the tank, though, and he outlasted veteran Italian rightback Roberto Simontacchi in the 79th minute, cutting it back for
Ling Fuquan to poke in.
Behind for the first time with just ten minutes remaining, Whackers staged a last effort to stay in the tournament, but the match would end with
Gleb Dorogan strolling slowly on for
Zhu Changchun, with the scores unchanged.
