Peñarol Pressed Back
Meyer Mowing
The Birds' second XI recorded a second friendly draw on the trot, as they returned from Uruguay with a credible three-all against III.12 leaders C. A. Peñarol City. Affectionately referred to as the "Iron Manyas" by their boisterous support, which has led to their stadium named as such, they drew a crowd of nearly seven thousand for Grilled's visit, and few among them could have cause to regret the entertainment that followed.
Of course, it was not an overly earnest fixture for either team - Grilled took the opportunity to give their underperformers an airing in a 4-5-1 that they were not entirely comfortable with, while the hosts graciously deigned to feature their best either. In particular, club fullback icon Evaír Magri and the popular Martín Marizcurrena, both of whom had been regulars with the Uruguay U-20 side, would not be involved. Magri was a camera magnet in the Peñarol dugout, but ultimately did not come on.
In their absence, on-field leadership fell to Argentine veteran Tito Naser, in what could be his last match for the club. Player-coach Ramón Costa offered a sound if slow outlet at leftback, but it was not as if point man
Leong Wan Kang could find much to exploit on that end, in a rather poor first half for the Birds.
Grilled were fighting themselves as much as Peñarol then, with the lack of passing options severely hampering the midfielders, who had been spoilt by the club's usual three-forward system; they found themselves drifting up, only to be waved back by coach-in-charge Luis Alcántara, who was far more interested in evaluating their discipline, than in the actual outcome.
It came as no surprise then that the hosts were first to score. Several minutes after getting the game's first card, for contesting a free-kick much too vigorously, 18 year-old José Pedro Feldman made
Clark Won look silly with a sharp change of direction on the move. No-one else managed to close him down, before he sent a fine flat lob sailing past
Dan Seng in goal.
This was the strike that woke the game up, and Grilled defended bitterly against the Peñarol onslaught.
Clément Meyer and
Leong Wan Kang were booked in succession as they were caught up in defence, with the latter very lucky to stay on after coming close to crippling Arturo Pinazo with a dangerous lunge that caught Pinazo's ankle between his legs. Leong couldn't very well contest the penalty that was awarded for that, and the grand old man of Peñarol, Obdulio González, casually slotted it in.
There was one final strange exchange in time added on, which began with Feldman's bizarre pass to
Hariharan Prabhu in his own final third. The bemused Prabhu would surely had scored had he advanced without delay, but the extra couple of seconds he took allowed Costa in to save the day. Not only that, Sebastián Pérez would make it 3-0 on the ensuing counter, as former Saudi international
Qassem Madaini could not help but show his age.
Truth be told, Peñarol could not have been overly happy with their fairly disjointed play, but Grilled were definitely far worse off. Still, with education foremost in mind, Alcántara made no personnel changes over half-time, and the Birds stuck to what had been an exceedingly pointless formation for them.
Their performance level did improve gradually, and after limiting Peñarol to a couple of close calls, Grilled hit the comeback trail with some
Hariharan Prabhu magic. It was all too long in coming, but Prabhu was well capable of the dazzling thirty-yard through ball that he sent straight through Peñarol's ranks. The target was
Colby Awyong, who had silently crept upfield from his post in central defence, and who just about caught the young Guillermo Trias out with a skipping grounder.
There was still a mountain to climb, but the Birds took their next step just five minutes later, in the 73rd.
Clément Meyer, never a natural winger, had not enjoyed trying to get on the outside of Obdulio González on the right, and became much more effective doing his usual central bombing runs. His big break came after
Leong Wan Kang had pulled wide to receive
Low Aik Jia's lob into space on the left, and Meyer rose unhesitatingly to power home the return cross with his forehead.
The crowd were beginning to get restless, and would get even more so, when Grilled equalised against all odds right before the 80th minute. Meyer was again the scorer, this time following a quite wonderful volley from outside the box that had Trias totally beaten. This coincided with
Pompeo Bellamoli substituting in for Leong, who had by now been reduced to walking pace, after tirelessly plowing furrows by himself.
It would only have been proper for Grilled to complete their turnaround, but in all honesty, their recovery had been due more to individual brilliance, than any actual sustained improvement. Despite that, they could have won it at the gasp, but for once
Low Aik Jia's pace failed him as he tried to blaze through the middle. His teammates appeared more relieved than anything that no extra time was scheduled in the event of a regular-time draw, and
Zhao Jing Wei's coming on for Prabhu was the last event of the friendly.
