Chispa Cramming
Aw, Hwang To Rest
Peruvian III.1 side Deportivo La Chispa may have been relegated, but they gave a strong Grilled lineup plenty to think about, and lead at two points in the match before eventually falling off to a 3-4 defeat in this friendly. Their five-man defence led by Fortunato Chicata repelled almost all Birds attacks for much of the game, and Pajtim Stueber's frequent tactical switches and subs kept Grilled on their toes throughout.
Grilled had plenty to answer for after their atrocious weekend collapse to Hotspurs, and head coach
Tian Yonghang would publicly challenge the players to prove themselves here. Of course, only a few from Sunday would start today too, namely
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan,
Aw Keng Chuan and
Gandhik Chitre. That did not keep them from heeding Tian's words, however, but they would quickly find getting through La Chispa's packed backline harder than thought.
To be entirely frank,
Bilal Mohammad Harun and
Teo Chuan Yong had a uniform lack of mobility that left them largely static assignments, only too simple for the visitors to take care of, even without taking their extra men into consideration. Thus, most of the Birds' driving power would have to start from midfield, which however brought its own issues, such as when Alfonso Acurio beat
Enrique Baena to an underhit pass out wide. The counterattack saw Grilled woefully unprepared, and Danish veteran Aleksander Kristoffersen would be unhindered once he got ahead of
Gilbert Webb, which made it 1-0.
It was not clear how Grilled were to play their way back in, but they caught a lucky break when
Federico Parada went up for a header about the 28th minute, and despite getting nowhere near the ball, influenced Ben Päplow to brush it with his hand in distraction. Although the touch was nearly imperceptible, referee Larry Arocker-Aigner was a stickler for the rules, and
Teo Chuan Yong had the better of Tomas Pittevils from twelve yards to make it all even.
With no clear advantage accruing to either team, overall physicality began to increase in an effort to make the difference, and this saw Acurio down for a bit in the 35th minute after Baena got his left knee. It was
Aw Keng Chuan who got roughed off the pitch instead soon, as the impact from Fortunato Chicata's reprisal tackle told eventually. By then, however, Teo had made it 2-1 from a free-kick deflected in off the wall, which had Stueber switch up Mickaël Stievenard and Volkan Elçi before the restart.
Interestingly, both these midfielders would leave their mark soon in the second half, with Stievenard going first in the 54th minute; as before, it was a sharp breakaway that allowed La Chispa to score, with the otherwise-underused Omar Belmont pressing up for all he was worth on this occasion, as Aw's replacement
Paulino Trindade found himself stranded upfield following a collision. No time was wasted in getting the ball back into the centre, where Stievenard put his laces through it to leave
Manuel Vadalà no chance.
Stueber would again respond with another modification of his tactics, as he withdrew Kristoffersen, for the relatively-nuanced advanced playmaking of Turkish forward Hakan Umman. La Chispa had some defending to do first, however, as a rare defensive lapse saw
Gandhik Chitre receive the ball alone just six yards out, but he put it wide with Pittevils rushing him. A weary Webb was next off, as
Mohsen El Khateeb took over from the 41 year-old Scots.
And then, the Peruvians were in front. For once, La Chispa were holding on to the ball for over a minute with some success, and this would develop into a serious assault through the middle, that had Elçi wild and free following several neat short passes by his teammates. El Khateeb looked lost as the midfielder ran at him, and could do nothing when Elçi simply maintained his pace towards his inside, and reversed the ball into the bottom right corner for 2-3.
Well, there was clearly no reason for Stueber to stop with his adjustments, and this had Pierre Ouvrard on for Stievenard, who definitely looked a little disappointed at having to depart so soon. Umman showed himself willing to get tough when called upon too, as he was carded for bowling Parada over, as the latter threatened to slip by him. Grilled's own subs were hardly content to be wallflowers, though, and Trindade would get his own goal 69 minutes in, with fellow young winger Baena supplying him from the right.
Extra-time loomed according to the pre-agreed rules, but it was not clear how the players were going to fare, from how they had failed to pace themselves; legs were clearly beginning to get wobbly now, with more than a few dribbles either not meeting much resistance, or petering out on their own. Pierre Ouvrard might have been expected to fare better, given that he had been on for just over ten minutes, but his challenge on
Hwang Teck Fu was horribly mistimed nevertheless. Hwang's ankle took the full brunt of Ouvrard's boot then, for which the Frenchman was rightly booked, and
Chia Kwang Tse would have to enter for the downed Hwang.
Very ironically, for all of Stueber's well-crafted substitutions - with Idris Al Harbai entering for Sunderberg at this point - it was an unplanned one that would win it, and for Grilled. Chia might have been barely warmed up, but he knew exactly what he had to do, when
Enrique Baena crossed it in his direction, two minutes after coming on. Acurio tried to elbow in, but Chia was in his element, and his brilliant head placement and neck-whip slung the header powerfully over Pittevils, for a great first-time finish.
