Thunnus Tie
Tian Dragging
The Birds' worrying slump showed little signs of abating, despite their three-all draw against Irish Division Three high-flyers Thunnus Risk Taker 2.0 in the 1° Club World Cup. It took a massive effort from the indefatigable
Tian Yonghang to save Grilled's blushes, as he pitched in to equalize twice to stall Thunnus' momentum.
There was little sign of that at the beginning, as Grilled's woes in front of goal continued; Tian found the bar where he would have scored nine out of ten times, and several minutes later,
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim headed right at Thunnus goalie Rareş Pantea when he had half the net at his mercy.
The Irish club were living dangerously, but they had not compiled four wins on the trot without some selling points, and Belgian midfielder Wes Van Loon was definitely one. Engaging several Grilled players right in front of the penalty area, he made a gaping hole in the defence for Sérgio Plácido to attack, and the Portuguese forward obliged with a wonderfully accurate finish.
This called for Tian, who had again been by some distance the most involved of the Birds' men.
Low Aik Jia, who has lost favour in recent competitive matches, made a persuasive case for his reinstatement as he tore down the left. Berald Thimm nicked the cross slightly, but Tian adjusted on the fly to set his shot straight.
This was perhaps Grilled's best period of the match, and they sought to increase their lead, but without too much success. They could have been burnt when
Lee Lee Hao collided with Anne Wijzenbeek just inside the box in the 36th minute, but fortunately the referee saw it as an accident, and ended up booking Wijzenbeek for dissent.
Still, it appeared that the Birds would not be able to get a lead despite their relative dominance, until
Chow Ying Lee got a sole on
Wong Ping Shun's fiercely-struck low cross four minutes later.
If the few travelling Grilled fans thought that their team had turned the corner, however, they were badly mistaken. The restart brought a return of the unconvincing composure in front of goal that had so plagued them, exemplified when Mohd Safri again raked it right at Pantea's body when he had the opportunity.
This was something that Thunnus were not suffering from, and true to their name, they rolled the dice and came up double sixes. An outrageous dribble by Rogelio Lodiro right at Low surprised the latter so much that he neglected to even turn around, and for all of
Gene Filippone's closing down, he couldn't prevent Lodiro from firing solidly past Wong.
Zhu Changchun then fluffed a header from near point-blank range, before Czech central midfielder Ludvík Štembera plugged in what looked likely to be the winner, off Zsigmond Kolovics's assist from the left. However,
Tian Yonghang's flash of class in the very next move made it all square again, which was probably just about what an otherwise dreary Birds effort warranted.
