Extreme Resilience
It's Not Over Till It's Over
The EV Arena saw its closest game in a long while - perhaps ever - as The EV took the Birds all the way to injury time, scoring five goals on them in the process. Even this was insufficient for the City stalwarts to avoid a seventh straight defeat to Grilled, quite extraordinarily, as the latter made full use of the four minutes that Italian referee Domenico Donisi allowed, to stay right on the route to a potential third national league title.
The EV had, of course, fallen 1-5 at The Cooking Pot about a month ago, with
Mateja Jeftić and
Chan Ze Han grabbing a brace each. They had been rather more impressive at home, with two wins and a close 1-2 against Fringeheads in their four matches thus far this season, and their one-all draw against the same just last week suggested that they might have it in them to stall the Birds. Honduras head coach Mario Velasco stayed with the same eleven that had achieved that feat, not unexpectedly, if with the concession of playing Ján Gemer more towards the middle, given Grilled's vaunted front three.
Grilled for their part had little enough reason for caution, given that they had six victories out of six against The EV in the past three campaigns, all of them moreover by at least two goals. Or so the commentary box was pointing out, when the hosts took the lead in the fifth minute. Former Lebanese youth international Naji Hatoum had put it beyond
Salah Kamel, and after beating Kamel in a straight footrace, Hatoum would nick it on to Alois Štajer before
Douglas Carapaica could slide in.
The Czech striker's clinical finish past
Jānis Salmiņš would be met by an outpouring of cheers from the grandstand, and better was to come as The EV rose to their full potential. Barry Nakamura, Golden Boy of the club not that long ago, would have
Teo Chuan Yong bullied for the first time in ages, as The EV's midfield unit came to life. Their glorious previous season would be recalled as Nakamura waltzed right through to bear down on Salmiņš, and while the goalkeeper blocked the first effort, he could not prevent it from spilling into Ján Gemer's path for the easiest of tap-ins.
Grilled were then left staring at a two-goal hole after just 27 minutes, and with Velasco not about to make the error of falling back against a rattled Birds team, The EV looked well capable of running away with a famous win. It was, however, not to be -
Chu Xin Lee got one back as he beat The EV's offside trap to come up solo against Pedro Zwagerman in the 38th minute, and while several of the home players were still busy protesting,
Salah Kamel winged a wonderful knuckleball past the Dutch goalie, barely two minutes on.
The home fans would be back in full voice as Štajer answered instantly from the restart, with a practically-unsaveable snipe to the top left corner, but this was not the end of this breathless half quite yet.
Vikram Mudaliar had been stirred to action, and equalized from a beguilingly-direct run on opposing captain Giovanni Fiorilli. The Number Nine then recorded the rare feat of two goals in a single minute, as The EV were careless in trying to restore their earlier advantage, and the long ball hit right out of defence by Douglas fell very kindly for Mudaliar indeed, who thus made it 3-4 Grilled.
It was hard to imagine how this seven-goal first half might be matched for drama, but little did the buzzing fans who made it downtown know, that it was but an appetizer for what was to come. One could hardly fault The EV's supporters from being disappointed at how their seemingly-safe lead had been lost so easily, though that could hardly be realized from how loudly they welcomed their players back onto the pitch for the resumption.
There would be no repeat of the home team's blitz, however, as Grilled Birds were the ones who held possession now.
Moey Xin Seng's experience would play a large part of this as he frustrated the opposition by his willingness to pass it all the way back to Salmiņš if need be, which might have lulled them into not expecting his surge towards the box in the 54th minute. The ensuing shot wasn't half bad either, but ultimately a foot too high.
The tension was really building now, with the commentators resorting to the old trope of quipping that the next goal would decide the direction of the match, right as
Chan Ze Han picked up the ball about ten yards outside the penalty area. Chang Wai Rong tried to get in his way, only to be read by the Grilled star, who then dared Fiorilli to tackle him in the box before unleashing at Zwagerman; while not the best-placed, this strike was strong enough that the goalkeeper's touch on it was barely enough to redirect it perceptibly.
The stadium finally fell silent at what appeared another defeat for The EV, who were however right on the cusp of their own exciting comeback. Chang would redouble on his running, and another penetrating run from Hatoum would open it up for Chang to reduce, which also had
Salah Kamel booked for his late shove on the winger. It was then all even again two minutes later, as
Douglas Carapaica was caught napping on a sudden Moey backpass for once. The opportunistic Lars Smalbil had been watching out for that while slowly returning from an offside position, and scooted off to very confidently place it past Salmiņš.
Well, it was no exaggeration to state that many in attendance had never seen the likes of this before, and there was an absolute cacophony as the home fans tried to will their team on towards an epic story fit for the ages. To their chagrin, however, The EV's players appeared to mostly have had enough, which might have been partly due to their flagging stamina levels - for which they could hardly be blamed, given the constant intensity. Grilled were hardly all that better off either, and two points dropped looked a very possible conclusion, as their frenetic spurts found no purchase.
Hilal Bakhtiar couldn't just accept that result, though, and he would throw everything he could towards righting the ship: Douglas off for Webb with five minutes remaining, and finally a double substitution of
Bhavya Panigrahi and
Kalki Parvathaneni on for Jeftić and Egan, delayed until the 89th minute no thanks to the hosts playing keep-ball themselves. Too late, surely?
Not at all, it transpired. Four minutes of added time were declared to a mixed reception from the spectators, who appeared roughly split between just wanting it to be over and done with, and liking the prospect of claiming all three points. It wouldn't even take very long, as
Heng Dong Chu sprinted down the right with Smalbil barely hanging off him, and the inviting high cross would be misjudged by Zwagerman, who couldn't reach it leaving
Salah Kamel to pound it into the empty net.
The match would have to be paused at the outroar that ensued, with most of The EV's squad making to mob the referee on the dual complaints of Zwagerman seemingly being impeded by
Chan Ze Han, and Kamel having knocked Gemer down in the process of flinging himself at the ball. The air hung heavy as Donisi finally got his petitioners under control before withdrawing to consult with the video assistant referee... and confirming the goal.
There was little The EV could do now but to venture out in numbers in search of another equalizer, only to be caught short by a counter, coming after Webb's dribble out of defence to find the pass. That had not been appreciated by Bakhtiar, who was in fits watching his defender live dangerously on the edge of his own box, but there was no arguing with the results on this occasion.
