Xiuzhou Overtime
Moey In Mood
It was not a display that would set the footballing world alight, but it remained
Moey Xin Seng captaining Grilled to victory for the first time. While arguably the weak link in a comparatively vibrant midfield, Moey exuded composure if not yet class, and wisely left the heavy lifting to his more accomplished teammates.
On the other side were Chinese Third Division side xiuzhou from Zhejiang, undefeated in their last eight games, and clad in their customary red and orange. With German mainstays Björn Liesenhoff and Gustaf Zwingli still recovering from a full-blooded league draw against Shanghai opponents lihai, they would lean on Wu Rongming to do the directing.
Rongming was certainly the most impressive performer of the half, with
Hariharan Prabhu the only one to come close; Prabhu would however be stymied by Moey and Muthyala's continued unfamiliarity with the system, and for all of Grilled's possession, most of it was fruitlessly spent moving it about in their own territory.
They did have their moments, as when Bengt Mathiassen had to foul
Rinor Isufi to keep him from breaking free in the fifth minute, but this did not translate into actual goalscoring opportunities. That privilege fell to the visitors, and Spanish forward Josep Andreu Portabella looked certain to profit from a rusty
Ling Fuquan's slip after twenty minutes.
Dan Seng looked well beaten too, but Portabella sliced wide after rounding the goalie.
xiuzhou didn't keep their small but dedicated cadre of travelling supporters waiting for too long, though, and Wu Rongming fittingly opened the scoring eight minutes on. This time,
Remco van der Ban severely underestimated Łukasz Zieliński's agility, and knocked his clearance straight into the Pole's boot. Before van der Ban could recover, Wu had dashed by, to knock it past
Dan Seng without too much difficulty.
Grilled then went two down when xiuzhou's bright young winger Jiang Quankai raced into open space scarce five minutes later, and Zieliński would finish it by himself this time. All in all, it had hardly been an endorsement of the Birds' newest fellows, who had been comprehensively outplayed by their counterparts in the main.
The second half brought a marked and welcome improvement.
Hariharan Prabhu became notably more assertive in calling for the ball, and the Birds improved for it. xiuzhou's backline came into trouble after a long while, when
Low Aik Jia suddenly pulled away from the formidable Jordi Ausina in the 50th minute, but unfortunately
Hilal Bakhtiar managed only a poor connection with the rushed cross
The final piece would fall into place with
Tian Yonghang's arrival for Low in the 60th minute. Low had been an intermittant threat with his undoubted pace, but Tian's practised plotting was on another level altogether. Indeed, he had only been on the pitch for two minutes when he encouraged
Rinor Isufi to make an early run, and then faultlessly supplied him at just the right moment to evade Lajos Király's watch.
Tian's initial impact was hardly spent, and Grilled were level within another two minutes. While he did not even come close to the action for this one, his movement down the left distracted several xiuzhou players sufficiently that
Remco van der Ban could dribble in with a little bit of luck. Guido Armesto came close to blocking the shot, but ended up deflecting it short of his far post.
This double blow had the visitors retake a more defensive posture, and despite
Pompeo Bellamoli's best efforts upon coming on in the 75th, Grilled found it tough to unlock their committed defence. Portabella exemplified xiuzhou's determination when he raced back to cover
Neeraj Muthyala's advance, pulling his thigh muscles in the process.
Qassem Madaini would take over from
Rashid bin Ahmad for extra-time, during which Grilled's superior possession finally wore xiuzhou down.
Rinor Isufi would eventually win it with his accurate 99th minute drive from under Guan Enkai's last-ditch lunge, an ending which was probably not inequitable to either party.
