Africain Exertion
Chu In Extra Time
Tunisian II.4 favourites Club Africain 1920 roghem el3edyen were Grilled Birds' hosts for this particular Sunday friendly, and they would be as good as to provide a stiff test. It might not have been the strongest of Birds teams, with most of their star power again concentrated in the forward line, but a sustained effort to advance the game by
Teo Chuan Yong, would be met by
Chu Xin Lee's patented invention, when it mattered.
Freshly relegated from the Division Nationale after a difficult introduction to the top division, Club Africain have basically fully overhauled their squad once their relegation appeared likely, with Khaled Jenayah, Carl Otto-Kuestner and Remko van der Velden taking their leave. Much will now be expected of national star fullback Aous Troudi, capped 17 times for Tunisia, who in turn returned from Bulgaria's Fc MarItZa PLovDiv for S$12.4 million. Troudi would line up against Velho at rightback today, while also offering a very real threat on the overlap.
Club Africain gaffer Yassine Ben Khalfallah, himself a Tunisian icon, sought to fully exploit the attacking capabilities of Troudi and Luis Poblete in a 4-3-3, with a view towards bringing Spanish Number Nine Diego Clos into play. Unfortunately for them, the Birds had a ready-made answer in having Douglas and Lunde cover towards the outside from midfield, which had Panigrahi and Webb perhaps much less bothered than they had a right to be.
Naturally, much of the questioning would be initiated by the visitors, who found teenaged centreback Wael Harouni a particular liability, if current Tunisian national goalkeeper Idriss Dhouib a tough nut to crack. Mudaliar had suggested beforehand that it would take something special to get it past Dhouib, but as fate would have it, Dhouib would come too aggressively for
Chu Xin Lee's outswinging corner. It would probably not have been a problem had Dhouib simply stayed near his line, given the poor angle that Mudaliar was left with, but he was too good to miss an empty net.
Dhouib's quality would return two minutes later in the 13th, just on time to pull off a miraculous double stop - first from a Mudaliar flying header, and then somehow immediately back to his feet, to reach
Kalki Parvathaneni's effort. This left the latter visibly rueing his going for precision rather than power then. Harouni was totally lost at times, but Dhouib would usually be there for him, as with another prompt rush that had the Grilled forward lift it just over, 21 minutes in.
The home team, battered so thoroughly, would have their moment some six minutes later, not unexpectedly through Troudi's brilliance on the ball. The wingback would cover nearly the full length of the pitch in taking it up the right, despite the combined resistance of
José Luiz Velho and
Douglas Carapaica. Troudi slipped it on to Clos to bookend the incredible run, and Clos would duly be bundled over by Panigrahi, just inside the penalty area. Luciano Graf von Zeppelin stepped up to take it, and sent
Manuel Vadalà the wrong way.
It returned to a full-on Grilled assault with the match tied up once more, but Club Africain were improving at keeping the opposing forwards away.
Douglas Carapaica was left to shoot in the 32nd, and made a fine go at it, only for Dhouib to claw it away from the top corner.
Vikram Mudaliar's ceaseless attempts to run in behind brought a single clear opening five minutes after the restart, but he fired straight at Dhouib with Von Zeppelin pressuring from the side.
A hefty shoulder barge by Tronje Wimmer on Kalki to forestall a cross was perhaps the defining picture of the second half, though the Birds could well have shaded it, with a little more luck. They were all but camping around the box in the final ten minutes, and their midfielders had effectively free licence to shoot if they wanted.
Douglas Carapaica, esteemed perhaps less than he should be in this respect, dropped his lob onto the crossbar with six minutes remaining.
Extra time it was, and Grilled wouldn't have much longer to wait for the breakthrough, as it happened. There was no keeping
Chu Xin Lee under wraps forever, and he would scoot past two defenders to drill it to the far corner, after five minutes. The Birds would then give Club Africain a break by putting
Toma Tamiya and
Chirag Thevar on in defence, but all the hosts got was a booking for a messy tackle by young Hussein Hakimi.
