Carelessness Compounded
Saunov Shakes Pot
Grilled Birds appeared to have done it the hard way against United at The Cooking Pot, only to drop two points against the longtime II.2 rivals at the death. The announcers couldn't get enough of reminding the crowd before the game that this fifteenth competitive matchup between the sides was their first outside that Division Two league before the game, and they would be able to add that -= Manchester United =- had managed to snap a four-match losing streak, at its conclusion.
The duo had started the day first and third in the S-League, with United having a Singapore Cup final against Fringeheads on Wednesday - probably the most successful period in the City club's history ever. Grilled weren't doing too badly themselves either, with a very real shot at another Challenger Cup in the works. With this background in mind, it was not entirely unthinkable that Przemysław Kuziemski had broken the bank out of the blue, as he brought in former Ecuador wing legend Lucio Reascos, Chilean defender Rawrawa Rojas and Dutch fullback Jean-Marie Wilhelmus just yesterday.
On-and-off South Korean national goalkeeper Man-Shik So and Spanish defender Aleixo Cruzul were also playing just their second game for United, after a superb semifinals debut in which they held Random Curiosity FC off, 3-0. With the departures of Sabio Manuelli and Volnei Taffarel to fund Kuziemski's shopping spree, this was basically an all-new United side; its pedigree was uncontestable, and the only doubts were over whether all these talents could gel off the bat.
The Cooking Pot was as good a place to seek a resolution as any, and from early evidence, the visitors had struck gold with their buys. Grilled were not about to change their style, not at home, but Man-Shik So's X-factor came through as early as the sixth minute, when he got a foot to a snap drive from
Moey Xin Seng. It conveniently went to Radim Chvátal on the left, and the Czech winger was capable of dropping a fifty-yarder right to Horst Friedrich Dalen, who beat
Gilbert Webb to the punch for the opener.
This was, suffice to say, the last thing that the home supporters wanted to see, and their only consolation was that the Birds were otherwise dominating play by almost all standard metrics. United were happy to pack their defence, which was just about enough to put
Vikram Mudaliar off in the 16th minute. Roughhousing by Jean-Marie Wilhelmus brought a yellow card and more pressure on them... only for Paweł Święcicki to convert a Lucio Reascos through ball out of nowhere.
Święcicki's reward was to be taken off for Dejan Skrt, as Kuziemski hastened to protect his team's lead, which appeared to have the opposite effect in the short term. The Birds had learnt to look to
Chan Ze Han when the chips were down, and the Number Eleven would not disappoint, as he ripped past Tjaard Davidse with a near-unbelievable flip-flap. The replays were still on when Webb made a go at surprising So from outside the box, and it would take Cruzul to bail his goalkeeper out then.
The pendulum then swung United's way, with Mudaliar's booking followed by a devastating free-kick by Radim Chvátal for 1-3, though it was noted by the commentators that
Jānis Salmiņš should really have gotten closer to that than he had. Referee Zsombor Dörögdi would then award a penalty at the other end, to add to the controversy over his previous call;
Mateja Jeftić would stay out of the debate as to whether this was meant as some sort of recompense, and instead focused on putting it in at the left post, with So nearly saving it.
The Birds were not done for the half yet, and
Teo Chuan Yong would make his biggest contribution for some time, with a brilliant cross after swopping positions with
Kalle ter Berg down the left. The Dutchman for his part had made haste towards the near post, and his glancing downwards header was just what was required, to get the ball past So.
That made it three-all at half-time, and if
Eren Serpin couldn't have been pleased at Grilled having conceded so many at home, there was no denying the entertainment value on offer to the attendance of just over ninety thousand. Team captain
Moey Xin Seng would give several of his compatriots an earful both leaving and re-entering the field, no doubt about the importance of stemming United's counters.
Dalen and Święcicki were, honestly speaking, one of the more dangerous advanced forward tandems that Grilled have had to face, and the Birds' plan for the second half remained to keep them from joining the action, as far as was possible. They actually managed that for the most part, and put up quite a few promising attacks of their own into the bargain.
Gilbert Webb would slip it through for Chan in the 53rd minute, and the man was not one to disappoint.
Ahead for the first time in the match, the Birds would be exhorted to stay the course by Serpin, but the forced tempo would take its toll. The first victim would be
Bilal Mohammad Harun, who had his right ankle painfully clipped in the 64th minute. Grilled were down to ten men as United countered from Mudaliar's shot across goal, and they didn't manage to get
Wu Jinglong on before United set up their free-kick. Fortunately,
Mateja Jeftić stayed close to Dalen then, and interfered with what would otherwise have been an open shot.
Kuziemski would realize that time was running out, and there would be a double substitution with twenty minutes remaining; Dalen and Sim Chin Chi would be off, and the duo of Jahid Abdul Rahman and Viktor Saunov on. Despite that, Grilled were firmly in control by now, and United were reduced to running about fighting fires in their own half.
Grilled's final possession will doubtless be dissected for a long time in the club's strategy sessions, as they passed up the very real option of cruising to the win, with one last push up the right side.
Salah Kamel volleyed it wide, and So would rush the goal-kick with half the Birds team evidently convinced that the referee would blow for time while the ball was in the air. Nothing doing, however, and they would suddenly realize the fix they were in, when an odd bounce took the ball away from Webb. Viktor Saunov was one-on-one with Salmiņš, just like that, and it has to be said that the Grilled keeper will have to work his way back into the fans' hearts.
