Chaos In Dominicana
Liehner Lambasted
German coach-in-waiting
Marcus Liehner royally messed up his first official match in charge, as he baselessly inserted himself into central midfield against Juvtd Desperados, currently 5th in the Liga Mayor de Futbol. A man down in defence and with the equivalent of a training coordinator in midfield, Grilled still prevailed through Cup hero
Hidde van Liere.
For the first time in weeks, Grilled's second-stringers could enjoy a decent run-out as Cup commitments finally ended. Unfortunately, Liehner took his new-found prerogatives to excess when he insisted that Grilled treat the game as "just another training session." To this end, he named himself as an observer and made himself responsible for providing running commentary.
The over 4000 spectators thankfully never noticed as Liehner kept his antics discreet, but it hampered the reserves' abilities to play a proper match. Their industry did come through in the first few minutes, as Grilled began at a torrid pace. Hjortlind had to apply the finish touch, but Spanish import Jonathan Barrat Esteve got his gloves to it.
The one-man handicap soon took its toll, and the Desperados lit up the scoreboard in the 25th minute through Grzegorz Sarnowski. The Polish winger found acres of space, and had the confidence to take it into the penalty box before bringing it over
Hang Bao-Tam's head.
Tuan-Mu, just back from a dehibilitating hip injury, sent heartbeats in the Grilled camp racing when he went down hard together with Desperados' Juan José Alcaraz a minute later. The yellow card was soon forgotten in the face of a possible career-ending tragedy for the longtime centerback.
By this time Liehner realised that his men were seething privately, and he rather belatedly filled in behind. It couldn't stop the rot immediately, and Romanian speedster Cãlin Sitaru should have made it 2-0, if not for Bao-Tam's splendid reactions. Jie Siong almost became a casualty when he slammed a foot against his goalposts while attempting to clear.
There was some soul-searching to do during the break, with Liehner explaining his motives to the disgruntled team.
Luis Alcántara refused to wrest control back from his deputy, and just sat smiling in a corner as Liehner got to know what it was like to manage a real squad.
Alcántara was inches from levelling in the second half, after a magical chip from Hjortlind fell to him just five metres out. Esteve threw himself in the way, and the shaken captain put just a tad too much on his shot, and saw it clatter off the crossbar.
Finally, Grilled found their goal through
Ulf Hjortlind. The out-of-favour forward had put in a honest day's work, so although he had no real right to have the ball blocked to his forehead after
Bukhari Abd Hamid had thumped it goalbound, he could feel justified in seeing it fly into the back of the net.
van Liere snatched the winner four minutes later as he showed no mercy to Alberto Caño after the lad had misplaced a pass, and although Alessandro Aschwanden tried valiantly with a towering header later on, the Desperados could not find the equaliser in time.
