Tõmba Bustup
Warrior Chia
It would be a hard and frustrating session for Grilled Birds' reserves in Trinidad & Tobago, as H.I. VII.1653 club Tiri ja Tõmba somehow came through a first half skewed towards their visitors, before springing some surprises towards the end of the match. This was generally a bad day for nearly all of the Birds' players, but
Chia Kwang Tse did redeem the team a little with a self-sacrificing consolation.
Tõmba were on a bit of a roll in the league, with successive wins over Georgian Legion and Sokół Trześniów, although before that they admittedly had endured a streak of eight games without a win - something that this Grilled side can surely sympathize with. The teams put out did look very finely matched, but for a single, huge aberration on the Birds' end -
Chan Ze Han.
There was only so much difference that a single superstar could make, as it turned out, what more with the hosts being entirely happy to sic two men on him whenever possible. This led to more opportunities being opened up for Chan's teammates, but none of
Hwang Teck Fu,
Prokop Mottl or Chiraq Thevar could make theirs count, over a productive first thirty-five minutes. Benson Croke would be played cleverly through the middle in between by Chris Newsam, only to pull his shot slightly wide too.
The feeling was that the team that managed to put it in the net first would gain a considerable advantage with finishing so dire everywhere, and thus was it for Tiri ja Tõmba through Subodh Barua in the 39th minute. Rahul Mayekar clipped what looked like an ineffective low cross into the box, but while one would have expected either
Manuel Vadalà or one of the Grilled defenders to have gotten to it, the ball somehow crept through to Barua at the far post. Barua's touch here wouldn't merit a second look, really, but it was good enough to score from.
Further, the excitement of the goal would shortly be overwhelmed by an unsightly melee erupting in the middle of the field, which had players from both teams racing to either join in or break it up. Replays would reveal that it started with Desmond Shuffler barging Prokol Mottl without warning, possibly due to what he thought was unwarranted crowding by the Czech player, which had Benson Croke follow up with a shove on
Chad Thach as the latter showed up to help. Italian referee Pier Federico Savigni took his time reviewing the evidence on camera, and his verdict would be: Shuffler off, Croke yellow card.
The extra man wouldn't do too much to change Grilled's fortunes, what with Tõmba simply dropping a midfielder back to deal with Chan, and the game would hobble on much as before. The same went for Tian's double sub of
Mohsen El Khateeb and
Cameron Law on for Mangoye and Vadalà, and in fact Law might have been somewhat culpable for Tõmba padding their lead in the second half.
The home team expectedly resumed the match on the defensive, betting that Grilled did not have the offensive skill to break them down easily - and in this they were largely vindicated. For the first half-hour of this period, the Birds would huff and puff, only to create but a single clear chance, that for Mottl in the 55th. Still, Mottl should by all rights have stuck it into the net, but his split-second delay was all it took for goalie Ravi Mondal - having a great day - to reach it.
Grilled's well of creativity, not overly deep to begin with, had all but run dry in the 74th minute, when yet another of their rather-predictable attacking patterns was read by the Tõmba set. Skipper Tom Vanterpool threatened to send Newsam clear with a brilliant long through pass, leaving Mohsen to obstruct the forward. That was a free-kick about ten yards outside the penalty area, and Anthony Morency went for the straightforward delivery into the box, which was met square on by Delroy David's head for 2-0.
This had to be a downer for
José Luiz Velho, who had been doing well as sweeper before that, but more was to come from the home team. The Birds remaining trying to press their numbers advantage, but their increasing impatience had Junior Samuels come through for Tõmba instead six minutes from time, with
Cameron Law making a hash of what looked like a simple take. That was three-nil for Tõmba, and a booking for
Chad Thach for petulantly lashing out at the turf in perhaps-justified pique.
There would be one last burst of effort from the Grilled end as they sought to reduce their embarassment here, and they would finally save some blushes, as
Toma Tamiya went past Croke with some difficulty on the right flank in the 86th minute.
Hwang Teck Fu's initial finish would be blocked and sent back outside the box, but
Gandhik Chitre's following cross from the other wing would be blasted home by
Chia Kwang Tse.
A second goal was even on the cards, as Grilled's ship appeared to finally come in, with a magnificent series of forward passes ending with a penalty for holding in the penalty area... only for
Chan Ze Han to fluff it for once. There threatened to be a repeat of the first-half bust-up towards the end, as Delroy David and
Chia Kwang Tse had to be taken off - and Junior Samuels carded - after a right mess in midfield, but the officials cleared it up quickly this time, and even oversaw the mandated four extra minutes with no further incident.
