Collapse At The Dome
Mayuyu Help Themselves
Grilled Birds suffered one of their worst unexpected losses for some seasons, as they fell miserably 0-4 to a turbocharged Mayuyu AKB48 at their 渡辺麻友Dome. That said, the Birds had huffed and puffed to a close 2-1 at The Cooking Pot earlier in the season, so there should have been an expectation that the Woodlanders were going to make a contest out of it. What Tian couldn't have predicted, though, was how dreadful his own team's response would be.
The only change for Mayuyu from that game would be former Slovakian youth international Rudolf Kefalín getting left out due to a lingering concern from his injury at tpyers, with veteran Luis Bique manning rightback in a reshuffled back four. Grilled had
Chan Ze Han very obviously their main man in attack once more, but opposing captain Gerardo Ravarotto would remind Chan early on that he was being watched, with a very stout tackle.
The travelling support would soon gather that something was off with the Grilled team, however, as more than a few simple passes went astray. Not only that, the coverage after losing the ball left much to be desired too, with even
Aw Keng Chuan having forgotten his basic duties, on one such occasion in the eighth minute. Lucas Wauquier could hardly believe all the time he had, it seemed, and he could easily afford holding on to it, until Gilbert Stepp made the run he wanted from behind.
Bhavya Panigrahi tried to stay on the winger, but was only too easily warded off. 1-0, Mayuyu.
That could yet have been accounted as happenstance from the hosts, but Grilled evinced no improvement, as their lethargy stood out from how vigorously Mayuyu pursued the ball. All that energy paid off again in the 27th as Jurica Prusina's speculative early dash saw him in pole position to reach Bique's long pass first, and the Bosnian made a difficult finish look easy. Chan had his turn six minutes later as
Chad Thach found him inside the six-yard box, but Philip Boestlinger spread himself to block Chan's instinctive stroke to the far corner.
It was a simmering
Tian Yonghang that made his displeasure known to his charges at half-time, as he made it a point to glare cross-armed as they filed past. This was quite justified, actually, from how most of the players had slacked off, and the restart saw Grilled perk up a bit, all the more with
Kalki Parvathaneni and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul eager to make a splash.
It would be somewhat too late, unfortunately, as Mayuyu had grown in confidence with their two-goal lead too. While not a direct match for Grilled in midfield, they did have teeth chomping at the Birds' slow defence from the wings, and with Grilled needing to chase the game, their poor oldies at the back were unavoidably exposed.
Damian Hutter was left needing to stop Prusina as the striker whizzed in from the right in the 55th minute, and while his sliding challenge was clean enough that it dodged a booking from the German referee, a Mayuyu clamour and replay would have Oliver Zeidner give the penalty. Bique took it on, and had Germanakos stranded in the middle with a tricky run-up.
Three became four ten minutes later, as the Birds sank further into a morass of their own making; almost all offensive responsibilities had been dumped on
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan by this stage, and the Turkish winger was getting wrung out by the wringer there. He certainly didn't have the legs left to pursue Antonio Olivieri after the Italian had dispossessed him deep in his own half, and a couple of calm passes had Joonas Ahola polish off an excellent team goal.
That created the rare sign of a red-faced Tian yelling on his feet, but that would not do much for the Birds' footballing fortunes, moreover with
Chan Ze Han going off the boil too. Having stepped up to rescue Grilled so often in the past, Chan should probably be forgiven this, but it was still hard watching him make a hash of what should have been simple finishes in his heyday. Boestlinger admitted reacted promptly to Chan's free-kick curler in the 72nd minute, but his weaksauce effort when facing the goalie alone in the 84th minute would have seen far less renowned forwards condemned.
Mayuyu could well have piled on the humiliation, and Olivieri would have made it 5-0 if his wicked strike had come off the crossbar the right way, from their counterattack in the 80th minute.
Gilbert Webb did make the most of his short time on as he hassled Hunor Inczédi at the death, to prevent the Hungarian striker converting off a free-kick combination.
