Lucky Omens
Egan At It
This was the Birds' final tune-up before their winner-take-all decider against Sarcastic Fringeheads for the S-League title, and Grilled could have asked for little more than a big shutout, and no new injuries to boot. Inaugural Puerto Rico Sapphire Challenger Cup champs Lucky Tigers were the hosts, and they had coincidentally defeated Atletico Ginger by the same 4-0 margin last month, to claim the trophy.
The Tigers were also looking very good for promotion to the third division, and
Eren Serpin mentioned in the pre-game interview that he saw in Jansen Whittaker a kindred spirit, with the same dynamic attacking inclinations. It would hardly be a good test of Lucky Tigers' true capabilities, with Joshua Nieves and Dutch veteran Timmy Crijne being the only holdovers from their finals heroics, and it seemed that the hosts recognized the fact too as they started pressing right off the bat.
There was clearly a limit to how effective a tactic that they were manifestly unused to could be, and while there was no lack of heart on the Tigers' part, their 3-5-2 was simply not particularly suited to their gameplan. On the surface, it allowed a natural one-to-one correspondence to each Grilled man, but such a naive arrangement would oft be unravelled by some semi-clever movement by the Birds.
Thus was it for the opening strike, which had
Heng Dong Chu blow past Maximilian Jaquet, and then Daniel Rosa, on the left side. There were simply no defenders prepared to cope with Heng at full throttle at this moment, and he would have the about-equally tenable options of
Moey Xin Seng and
Prokop Mottl, assuming he didn't prefer to finish it himself. In the end, Heng would be unselfish in drawing Juri Carlino out for a simple tap-in by his captain, which Moey duly acknowledged.
All the action appeared to be coming through Heng in the early developments, as the Tigers struggled to find a good match-up against the speed freak. Despite being unmatched in moving the ball upfield, however, Heng would not get any joy when shooting himself, with his incredible tenth minute attempt being stopped by the keeper, right before entering the top corner.
A bad tackle by Oscar Cosme had hackles raised for a while there, which would subside after
Teo Chuan Yong shook hands on it; Cosme eventually being carded by referee Jo Bartels probably contributed too.
Bernie Egan had been gradually working himself into Grilled's attacking patterns, and would sneak a second goal home at the far post in the 25th minute, with Heng supplying the cross.
Grilled's Number Fifteen had seriously done everything but score up to this point, and this wasn't about to change any time soon. Heng wouldn't come any closer than his curler in the 35th minute after once again rampaging down the left, and this time it was Andrés Cruz who got in the way. Daniel Rosa would however only clear it straight to the lurking Egan, who could hardly believe his good fortune. 3-0, easy.
Half-time saw the largely-untested
Chirag Thevar go off for
Radovan Jaška in the Birds' backline, with
José Luiz Velho replacing old buddy
Prokop Mottl in attack. The Brazilian would nearly make an immediate impact, as his directness took Cruz by surprise on his first possession, and relief was evident on Carlino's face as the fiercely-hit grounder was dragged a yard wide.
Lucky Tigers were doing rather better overall than they had before, one had to admit, as their pressing took the shape that Whittaker was evidently expecting. He wasn't entirely satisfied, so it seemed, and would replace the spine of the team in the 60th minute: off came David van der Meulen and Andrés Cruz - who probably had not done much wrong - to be replaced by Timmy Crijne and Vladimir Stoyanov respectively.
The legs were fresh, but the changes arguably rocked the flow that the Tigers had worked themselves into, and the Birds would manage to come closer than they had for some time.
Bernie Egan was the main beneficiary, as he found good space on the right, but his finishing was inches off in the 65th. Five minutes later, Egan stylishly rounded Carlino, but was just a little too casual, and allowed Stoyanov to save.
One couldn't have complained too much had Lucky Tigers gotten something for all their efforts, and their first real chance of the match would come eight minutes from the end. Ricardo Maldonado would take it off Jaška as the Czech substitute got slightly complacent, but his best chance to shoot would go by, as he elected to take it closer instead. Sadly,
Mateja Jeftić would arrive by then, a step ahead.
Leonard Nguyen entered for
Yee Jian Hui with three minutes remaining, and Grilled would get one last parting shot, as they flooded forward in numbers in injury time. Heng, ever the provider, grabbed another assist as he squared it through for
José Luiz Velho to score.
