MH75 3 - 4 Grilled Birds
Almost Ashes
Jaszczura Scare
In a heartstopper more than reminiscent of Grilled's epic against East Coast Warriors two seasons ago, the Birds flirted with disaster against the breaking qualities of MH75, who appeared to have done enough as they held a lead as late as the 70th minute. It took a hotly-debated call by the referee to save the flagging players, who only then pulled themselves together for one last glorious push.
The Cup match may have been held on neutral ground, but looking at the composition of the gallery, it was obvious that this game meant rather more to the Division Three challengers. Their Israeli coach Owen Hoffman went for the tried-and-tested 4-4-2, abandoning midfield entirely to Grilled. However, his team would go on to make a mockery of standard football philosophy, as they whipped the Birds on the counter with evident relish.
Rashid bin Ahmad had warned of Piotr Jaszczura's well-hidden menace, and it seemed as if his teammates had not taken his warning seriously, seeing as how they backed off him as Olav Thorsen advanced following a blocked shot by
Tian Yonghang. The centrebacks were left staring at each other when the cross came in, and Jaszczura took it cleanly on the volley to stun the Grilled fans behind
Wong Tian Han's goal.
Grilled were hogging the ball, but MH75 knew what they were doing, and they made containing
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim look almost easy. Then, in the 29th minute, they repeated their trick, advancing with ferocious pace as Robin Hočevar released a big goal kick as a ball boy quickly retrieved
Wong Ping Shun's wayward free. Again,
Clément Meyer was nowhere near as Thorsen made his way down his flank, and again Jaszczura was faultless with his finish. 2-0.
It was a fairly poor lead to give up, with the opponents barely having touched the ball other than for the moves that led to their goals, but it was also no time for recriminations. Tian got the team together for a solemn huddle, and after camping out in the MH75 half for minutes on end,
Zhao Jing Wei got a corner off Gyula Mészáros. Meyer then made up for his defensive frailties somewhat by solidly heading home.
Zhu Changchun was narrowly denied pulling the Birds level before half-time with his strike born of sheer effort rolling against the base of the post, by Grilled had at least stopped the rot. They began the second half very positively, and
Ling Fuquan made a great overlapping run in the 55th minute to bend one around the MH75 box.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim was onto it, beating Hočevar by the length of an outstretched right leg.
The flow was indisputably going Grilled's way... before they fell prey to MH75's specialty for a third time. Having made a superb save from
Woon Shun An, Hočevar further managed to keep the ball under control and boot it accurately upfield, where Jaszczura was waiting. This time, both Ling and Filippone had learnt their lesson and were crowding him out, but Jaszczura still managed to help it on to Thorsen, who had little trouble faking Wong out in their one-on-one battle.
This effectively undid Grilled's efforts for the half, and after Hočevar immediately after saved another free-kick from Wong to much back-slapping from his teammates, it was beginning to look very bad for the Birds, who were noticeably getting tired. Ling nearly got himself sent off as he made an important tackle on Jaszczura, and by the 70th minute, Hoffman had sensed that it was the right time to tie the Birds up with the addition of the hard-running Jérôme Chapuis.
Hoffman might have been proved right, had Scottish referee Charlie Keown not written himself into MH75 history as an antagonist with his next decisions. With most of the players still waiting for Chapuis to come on, Keown blew for the restart, which was evidently not heard by some of the MH75 defenders. By the time they realised,
Chow Ying Lee was bearing down on Hočevar, who had little option but to take both the man and the ball.
Jaszczura led his teammates to argue their case to no avail, but at least Hočevar escaped a booking. This didn't help him to stop Wong's textbook penalty, though, and the Birds were left breathing a lot more easily. Their opponents never quite seemed to recover in contrast, with newcomers Fabrici Pallejà and Mats Lennartsson adding calm assurance - but not the firepower they now badly required.
Just a while ago, the Birds would have been overjoyed just to get to extra time, but that would prove unnecessary. Shorn of their initial patience, MH75 tried to press the issue once too urgently, and it was finally their turn to get left behind; Meyer nicked it off Thorsen and carried it down the left by himself at a respectable speed, and
Zhu Changchun swooped in on cue to give Grilled the lead for the first time.
This was the last straw for MH75, who lost their discipline at that setback, and Romanian central defender Iustinian Dumitru was sent off after viciously chopping
Gene Filippone down, an act that nearly sparked a free-for-all. Incoming elder statesman
Qassem Madaini managed to cool things down, fortunately, and Grilled then played keep-ball shamelessly to lock in the win.
