Erdinger Eclipsed
Hwang Chips In
Mexican III.13 side Erdinger74 were today's guests at The Cooking Pot, as the Birds pieced together a narrow 3-2 win despite a makeshift defence and attack, almost wholly on their blossoming midfield power alone. Still, despite a just-turned-nineteen
Lim An Keng flourishing in the first half, it would be Erdinger74 to end the first half in the lead.
Chan Ze Han came on for the second, and was pivotal in turning the match around.
Having bounced about the third to fifth division in the preceding seasons, it was somewhat hard to gauge the visitors' true strength, though much of it resided in playmakers Paul Ferrand and Viktar Dyka, and Finnish goalie Thomas Hedman. If this had to be reckoned as more than a fair fight for Grilled's trainees, it certainly didn't seem so immediately after kick-off, as Grilled besieged their goal with much urgency.
Atang Mangoye displayed a flash of brillance as he sought
Yee Jian Hui out with a magical thirty-yard pass, but Yee couldn't set himself up properly for the finish.
It cooled a little after that as the Birds' initial ardour faded, and much of the remainder of the half would be Lim butting heads against Ferrand, as they contested control in midfield. It would be the former who came off the better most of the time, buoyed by the fans, and he slipped
Mohd Marzuki Khairul through in the 26th, only for Hedman to sweep it up. Two minutes later, it was instead the Mexicans to score against the run of play, with Italian forward Davide Luigi Callari thrashing it home from the left.
That was as far as Grilled got in the first half, an uplifting show of maturity by their developing midfielders aside, and it would take
Chan Ze Han as the secret sauce to tie it all together.
José Luiz Velho had provided movement but little else against Javier Nájera, in contrast to Chan, would make the sweeper sweat almost with his first takedown of the ball; the turn-and-shot was magnificent, and only inches off.
The game continued with the Birds very much remaining in control of possession, but now also equipped with a legit threat at centre forward. Dyka would be gradually pushed back to help out, but that wouldn't prevent Chan from poking holes in the oppositio backline, simply by virtue of his presence.
Paulino Trindade found himself staring down one of those in the 58th minute as he strolled inside from the left, and he would opportunistically ghost past José María Prieto for the leveller.
Erdinger74 were largely solid in defence by and large, however, and if a winner were to come, most present recognized that it wouldn't be easy. Their three-man defence had become compressed, giving up some space wide, but Grilled were not able to consistently take advantage of that.
Gandhik Chitre knew exactly what he was doing when he left a leg out in the 65th, and Turkish wingback Salih Koytak took the bait. Estonian referee Mikk Mae gave the penalty without a second look, and Chan buried it for 2-1.
The visitors were buckling a bit now, but there remained a sting in their tail; Chitre's assist had given the young lad a boost in confidence - so much so, in fact, that he would make to run it in by himself, five minutes later. Only some brave scrambling by Hedman kept Chitre out then, and the somewhat unsightly save would grow into a full-on counterattack down Grilled's now-empty right side. Hartmut Oppenheim had Alois Heintze asking for it on his inside, and a slightly-delayed release saw the German make it two-all.
With there being all to play for again,
Yee Jian Hui would bite hard into Sancho Panóias on a slightly-late tackle, which was probably not to Grilled's advantage as it gave Erdinger74 the excuse to put first-teamer Raymond Kirkley on. The visitors were not allowed to settle as the Birds revisited some of their early verve, and
Hwang Teck Fu came up with a nice strike several minutes later, which turned out to be the winner.
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan came on for
Radovan Jaška with ten minutes to go, and spent most of it screening for the midfield.
