Canepa Nudged
Safri Silencer
Grilled got their first overseas tournament off to a winning start, edging Peruvian Division Three side Sport Canepa by three goals to two in an action-packed finale that saw more happening than some full matches.
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim secured the points after Canepa had threatened to overturn it all with two in four minutes.
Arriving in their home colours of dark blue with pink accents, Canepa pinned their hopes on a sensible 4-5-1 featuring new cross-country signing MADBEY FC and American attacking midfielder Hoss Bunn; Bunn was clearly out to overload the right side along with Dutchman Onno Claessens, with Bulgarian lone forward Alexander Stanishev also biased towards that flank.
If
Lin Jungui was concerned, he didn't show it, and in truth he was not overly troubled as his colleagues managed to hold possession most of the time. Furthermore, whenever Canepa had the ball, they tended to move it around inside their own half waiting for the perfect opportunity, which however was long in coming with wing outlet Claessens having his pace severely curtailed by the soft ground.
The rain didn't help Grilled's attacking ambitions much either, and neither did Canepa's dedication to keeping a watertight backline, and the lumbering contest only began to open up after a bad challenge on the halfway line by
Seytek Djekshenkulov. Seizing the opportunity, Canepa threw bodies into the Grilled area, and Gil Levin gave Birds fans a heartstopping moment when he lobbed it onto the bar.
The equilibrium broken, Grilled had their turn next, after
Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim was impeded just outside the Canepa box. The ensuing free-kick appeared to have gone horribly wrong as
Tian Yonghang seemed to have flubbed it sideways, but it transpired to be a cunning plan as
Abdul bin Jantan raced in and blasted it past the unwary Lalo Capmany.
That improvised routine certainly wasn't in Canepa's prepared playbook, and they were happy enough to let half-time arrive and regroup. They got their shape back, sure enough, but remained unable to make serious inroads, and longtime head coach Makoto Obinata, who is also doing double duty with the national U-20 side, figured that he had to do something. In came Marcelo Giso and Marc Dempsey, as Canepa began to force matters.
As happens so often in such situations however, this mid-game shift in tactics proved difficult to execute, and Canepa ended up being beaten at their own game as
Chow Ying Lee blazed down the left side on a breakaway to double Grilled's lead in the 81st minute.
With it looking like curtains for the opposition,
Niculae Stanca pulled
Tian Yonghang off to give homebound
Slavcho Tzonkov a final flourish, but it so nearly became a nightmare for the Bulgarian. He could hardly be faulted for Alexander Stanishev's slipping in the backdoor from a free-kick, having barely completed his warm-up, but he was embarassingly indecisive later on as Bóris Carviçais set up shop in the box to guide the equaliser in all too easily.
The Birds were in danger of losing everything as their confidence all but crumbled after that second goal, before Mohd Safri swooped in as their saviour with an exquisite first touch off a direct ball down the middle, to wrest the points back from a disappointed Canepa.
