Widla 1 - 2 Grilled Birds
Willya Just Score
Chan After Chance
Ghana third division hosts Widla led a charmed life for the bulk of their friendly against Grilled tonight, as they survived raid after raid that they had little right to, after a slightly-fortuitous third-minute lead. The Birds had to plug away incessantly, and racked up misses into the double digits, before they came good.
In an interesting historical tidbit, the club had actually played Grilled at The Cooking Pot twenty-one seasons ago, winning 6-5 with a Rudolph Wächterhäuser hat-trick, though they were then known as ROUNDS F.C. A couple of short-lived ownership changes not long ago saw them rebranded first as Desert Cats FC, and then as Hersches Int., before they adopted their current name.
Widla have steadied the boat in Division Three since then, but although they earned their first national-level trophy, the Ghana Consolation Cup, they have been unable to lift the league title in seven tries. French head coach and former striker extraordinaire Henri Kanouté has steered them to four consecutive runners-up finishes, but they have thus been unable to take that final step up.
Despite their season being effectively over, pending a dead rubber against Nkrumah Lives FC, Widla were not content with merely enjoying themselves for this one. While never exactly known for their prospenity to counter - their 5-3-2 always conceptually more of a base for slow, solid advancement, with defensive fullbacks - they absolutely crushed it after
Islom Davlatov tried to be too clever on a free-kick routine in the second minute. The trick play was seen through almost too easily, and Daniele Cupitò surged up the left, to feed Emilio Schättin for the opener.
That came out of absolutely nothing, as an irate
Dan Seng made it a point to emphasize. Grilled didn't seem to have much to worry about, once they hit their stride, though. They were walloping Widla's rather withdrawn set around, and
José Luiz Velho seemed to have found the key with his peg from way out in the 22nd minute, only for Manolo Campos to get the barest of touches on it.
This was not too much cause for concern by itself, given how the Birds were leading the hosts by the nose, and
Islom Davlatov rocked the post in the 34th minute, before promptly getting booked for bowling Costantino Raffaelli over, and then contesting his free-kick. Campos would again be Widla's hero as Grilled pressed the attack nonetheless, as he got down unreasonably quickly to deny
Mohammad Ramli Saliman a couple of minutes after that.
Prokop Mottl replaced
José Luiz Velho at half-time, with the Brazilian having done what he could, but Widla continued living on the hog. They had not come as far as Grilled's penalty area for long stretches of the previous half, with Schättin often their furthest man forward... in the centre circle. Little changed, but the Birds were just unable to convert their dominance into what they truly wanted.
This inability was verging on the ridiculous, and was exemplified by their failure to score in the 65th minute. Having dislodged Widla's entire defence with some excellent blind passing off a set piece,
Moey Xin Seng appeared unable to miss, with the ball at his feet, and just Campos to beat. He indeed rolled it past the goalie, but there came osé Roberto Piñeiro Truan flying in out of nowhere, to nick it off the line.
Widla were beginning to believe that they could actually hold on to it, and when Eduardo Brändle went down with a knock to his ankle in the 76th, he was certainly in no hurry to let the match continue. Ironically, that might have proven their downfall, as Widla were slow to react on the ensuing restart.
Chan Ze Han would create with a slice off the outside of his boot, and
Vikram Mudaliar, ever watchful, latched onto it to equalize with a first-time effort.
Grilled weren't about to be satisfied with a tie now, and they laid siege to Campos' goal in the following minutes. The Spanish veteran laboured with a big stop against Saliman, before forcing
Jérémy Tarin's lob slightly off with a committed lunge, but
Chan Ze Han would put the game finally to rest, as he skimmed the rebound from that at the now-empty goalmouth.
