No Horse Run
Birds Hang On Grimly
The Birds survived a right scare from the Dakusuka today, to book their 24th season in Division Two. While there was little indication that the team's downwards trajectory had subsided, it remained somewhat comforting to the supporters, that the players were not giving up too easily.
Attendance at The Cooking Pot reflected that, as thousands of semi-lapsed fans turned out in droves, and relived the old days with a turnout approaching 85000. A good number of those were, of course, from the visitors, who must have seen a real chance at breaking into the second division. Seeing as Torsten Finneiß's club were unbeaten for their last seven competitive matches, one could understand.
As not wholly unexpected, their gameplan was to hit on the break from a defensive 4-5-1, a modification from the 3-5-2 that they have employed to fine effect in III.8. Toni Pirinen's usual strike partner Poh Cheng Tse had to wait on the bench, and utility man Faisol Dahlan roped in as an extra centreback, with Cheng Changshan kept in reserve after barely recovering from his minor injury.
Grilled would not have
Yuta Nakakita, of course, but this allowed
Ang Leong Kum to continue on in the middle.
Low Aik Jia again got the nod on the left, and
Clark Won filled on on the right.
It became a slow, tortuous grind, as most well expected, but the game lit up in startling fashion after eight minutes. A spate of quick passing saw
Rinor Isufi holding it up just inside the littlehorse penalty area, with He Cunhao at his back. Isufi's questionable flick-back appeared to serve no purpose, had it not come off poor He's hand all too obviously, as he shifted to better cover his quarry.
The handball seemed likely unintentional, but referee Grady Oliver's opinion seemed to be that He had the time to move his palm aside. The penalty was given, and
Gennady Dvorak waited for goalie Zhang Zinan to commit to his right side, before casually stroking it in at the other end.
This made for a bad start for the visitors, but they to their credit stayed the course. Under Giovanni Lenza's leadership, they kept with their counterattacking stance, even as
Tian Yonghang struggled to contain his colleagues' keeness to attack. Low for one was losing it against Lenza all too often, and had Irishman Lawrence Tempest's challenge on him in the 25th minute been a fraction quicker, it could have been a dangerous breakaway, rather than a yellow for the offender.
littlehorse were only getting closer, even given that, and they posted fair warning in the 27th minute, when they got off a lucky late tackle by
Gene Filippone, after the Swiss defender cleaned up the ensuing free-kick. They had no such luck six minutes later, however, and French midfielder Brice Olivier equalised for the visitors, after Toni Pirinen had penetrated to the byline on another pointed counterstrike.
The audience had barely had the time to realise how quickly the game had changed around, and they would be treated to the unlikely sight of littlehorse now trying to force the issue against the disordered Birds. Hong Kong fullback Pau Hangze tried way too hard to win a free-kick on a dash up the left, though, and it was an easy booking for simulation for the referee.
Some out-of-character yelling from
Djan Bacelar would finally wake the Grilled players up, and they made it to half-time none too impressively, but at least not behind. littlehorse reverted to type upon the reboot, but
Clark Won nearly magicked up a goal from nothing - anticipating
Tian Yonghang only too well, he got himself right where the ball would be if a defender happened to get a block in, and got it exactly right. Sadly, his finish would slam right into the crossbar, to the fans' audible dismay.
Tian for his part was looking much the worse for wear, despite trying to put up a brave face, and the perceptive Bacelar called him off on the hour mark, allowing a pumped-up
Mohammad Ramli Saliman into the game. He would get involved almost immediately, but not in a good way, picking up a yellow card for clattering He, as the duo raced to collect the rebound from
Gennady Dvorak's wickedly-struck free-kick.
Rinor Isufi was next to show signs of overexertion, but Bacelar was not prepared to hand it over to
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim just yet. The game was turning into the mud-wrestling that pundits had predicted beforehand, and Filippone was next to leave, after getting the worst of Onuţ Drogeanu's continued roughhousing. He would pass the armband on to vice-captain
Yuki Irie, with
Hoàng Trung Quá coming on.
Bacelar's hand would be forced shortly afterwards, when
Valentin Batâr pulled up sharply following a massive goal kick. Lenza sportingly put the ball out after it was called to his attention, and after the medic's spray didn't have its intended effect, reserve keeper
Krystian Rykowski took over for what was perhaps the biggest game of his career.
This would have been greeted slightly nervously by the Birds' supporters, had it not been for Isufi's raid up the left after Grilled won back the throw directly, to some displeasure from the visiting stands. The apprehensiveness would return when Armando Linares blazed past
Clark Won into open space with nine minutes remaining, but to the relief of most in the stadium, he messed up the cross badly.
Mohammad Ramli Saliman could then have won it outright for Grilled, after outlandishly spinning through the centrebacks, but he could not bring the ball back in control in time, and had it picked off by an alert Zhang. The formerly-solid littlehorse defence was coming apart by this time, but the Birds were unable to muster enough force, and they instead had
Clark Won sacrifice a booking for purposefully delaying a potentially-hazardous quick free-kick.
The game would enter an extra-time that neither team seemed to look particularly forward to - or were particularly prepared for. Then again, given that stamina was in short supply all around, the odds for a decisive winner had shortened considerably, and it would indeed arrive for the hosts.
Seven minutes into the extension,
Low Aik Jia was fouled some five yards out and to the left of the penalty area, and
Hariharan Prabhu lined up to take it, with
Gennady Dvorak standing by. It looked like an obvious distraction, but Prabhu pulled a surprise, putting his entire weight behind a strike. It was difficult to tell whether the bad contact was intended or not, but in either case, the ball ended up with
Rinor Isufi, who needed no prompting to turn and slice it past a vainly-stretching Zhang.
Now back in the lead, the Birds caught their second wind, and strove to make their advantage unassailable. Dvorak and Isufi would be at the forefront of the action, as the former youth internationals pulled out all the stops in an effort to find a third; excellent goalkeeping by Zhang Zinan would keep littlehorse in it, however, as he made notable saves from both forwards.
littlehorse would win the free-kick they were looking for eventually, with Pirinen getting the best of
Yuki Irie in jostling for position. Finally abandoning all caution, Finneiß motioned for all available personnel to pack Grilled's box, with Linares floating it in. As it was, not everyone had gotten the memo, and ironically it was Pirinen himself who was not yet ready, when the ball passed invitingly over him.
With time running out for the visitors, they could do nothing but continue throwing bodies at the Grilled lines, but this was definitely not what they were best at. Lenza, who had led with distinction for the entire 120 minutes, would finally succumb to heat exhaustion as he brought the ball up for one last try, and that was it for their courageous challenge.
