Ati Get Three
Tero Doubletake
The Birds came off second best in their visit to the Aklan province in central Philippines, as Division Three frontrunners Ati-Atihan pulled off a last-minute victory in an exceedingly hot-blooded friendly. Grilled equalized twice in response to long-serving Finn Tero Löfström, but opened themselves to a killer blow from Alex Venczel in injury time.
Ati-Atihan, sponsored by the established Swiss club linkwood, had grown rapidly to be known as one of the premier outfits in the region. Although their first-teamers, such as exciting young Latvian forward Artis Roze, were not on display today, they nevertheless managed to sell nearly seven thousand tickets to the day's entertainment.
This might have partly been due to Grilled's attractions, even if they would not parade a particularly competitive lineup either. That said, the likes of
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim and
Rinor Isufi were certainly well-received, despite being played out of position in an experimental 4-5-1.
The game got off on an odd note, after Romanian goalkeeper Răzvan Moldoveanu threw the ball out in the fifth minute, and motioned for his medic to have a look at his foot. They then appeared to enter into a disagreement as to whether Moldoveanu should stay on, but the goalie eventually got his way, and local boy Tomas Mencion came on for him.
Mencion would be thrown into the deep end as
Rashid bin Ahmad worried him on the Birds' next attack with a lob that whistled over the bar, and in the 20th minute,
Lee Lee Hao blasted a powerful one in that he would barely manage to swat aside. This did however do wonders for his self-assurance, as he then began berating his defenders quite loudly indeed.
Playmaker Victor del Castillo was working his way upfield even as Mencion continued his tirade, and after an enterprising dribble along the edge of the penalty area, won a free-kick off
Rashid bin Ahmad. Löfström duly smacked it into the defensive wall, only to slip it through the sea of legs on his follow-up effort.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim would hit back with a thundering header after
Clark Won's tricky nod had come back off the woodwork, which was about the time the contest began taking an unpleasant turn. The home fans didn't take the referee's decision to allow the goal despite Mohd Safri looking marginally offside well, and their fury was further fanned by the increasingly physical approach the the Birds' defence took.
After captain Alexander Fong took an elbow to the ribs from
Remco van der Ban to no official recourse, the Ati-Atihan players decided to take matters into their own hands, and teenager Mikhail Poserio launched himself at Mohd Safri to much approval. Grilled's combustible national forward predictably took offense, and Spanish man in black Víctor Portal finally resorted to dealing out a yellow card - to Poserio.
The gallery was up in arms at that decision, and it was probably just as well that half-time was in. The crowd cooled down somewhat during the interval, which saw Grilled do a little reshuffling of personnel.
Low Aik Jia would swop positions with
Lee Lee Hao to get a taste of defending.
The heat soon rose again however as Ati-Atihan started to rough it up instead, with del Castillo coming close to fisticuffs with
Rinor Isufi at one point. With seventy minutes gone and little progress on getting that second goal, Luis Alcántara had acting captain
Leong Wan Kang relinquish the armband to usual owner Tian, and allow old fox
Domenik Bögengang in to have a go.
This certainly did not go as planned, and the 38 year-old Bögengang certainly looked out of place, instantly losing the ball to a far younger and fitter Poserio. Emboldened, Ati-Atihan began making direct thrusts, and several minutes later,
Low Aik Jia obligingly gave Alexander Fong the opportunity to go down in the box, thanks to a shoulder-charge.
The referee apparently figured that it was only proper to award the hosts something after this long while, and Löfström capitalized fully on the penalty, stroking it low past
Krystian Rykowski. The Finn could even have won it for his team there and then, after he was left completely open on Ati-Atihan's next push, but he wound up rather less effective at scoring from open play.
It then all blew up. Winger Ariel Mangdadatu saw his number come up in the 81st minute, and brushed past Bögengang innocuously as he exited. This was clearly not how the German saw it, however, and he sent Mangdadatu sprawling with a hard shove. All hell broke loose, and by the time it settled, Bögengang was off due to a straight red, and del Castillo was fortunate to stay on.
The game was never going to be the same after that, as evidenced by Alden Abad forcing a booking for deliberately blocking a Grilled free-kick right after the restart. Alcántara evidently just wanted it to be over and done with, judging from his gesticulations to fall back, only for
Tian Yonghang to go and score right after
Qassem Madaini entered.
The hosts would have the last laugh, however, as the explosive three minutes of added time concluded with Hungarian defender Alex Venczel slotting the winner in past Rykowski.
