Five Star Shimmy
Phua Gets It On
The Birds finally got their league mission going, with their first win of the season, coming in some style at The Cooking Pot. Mayuyu AKB48 had split the difference with Grilled in the latter's first two seasons in III.1, but Sergio García de Camargo's squad had arguably not progressed much since then, with Gustavo Favari and Florian Aschaber the only additions since then. Both started in midfield today, but Grilled had the measure of them there, and systematically converted their possessional advantage into a 5-0 wipeout.
Tian Yonghang had admitted that he was under some pressure - if personal mostly - to start raking in points, and to this end, it was again a strong attacking-focused side being fielded at home.
Federico Parada would again skipper the side at left wing, with
Phua Ming Xin also seeking to prove himself, having been uprooted from the Swiss fourth division to serve as the Birds' main striker. He did have the good fortune to be facing down an ageing Luis Bique, who required quite a bit of support from Gerardo Ravarotto at leftback.
Parada has undeniably been growing in influence with his teammates, his official designation notwithstanding, and this was down to his propensity to make thing happen with consistency; having established the initiative very early, Grilled would work the entire front in search of the all-important first goal, and had it played down the left touchline for the Bolivian winger in the nineteenth minute. Ravarotto was not in a position to stop him then, and the run would continue along the goalline too, with a crucial wall pass by
Orest Tokarz thrown into the mix. The angle was very tight against Philip Boestlinger, but Parada had a good sense of when to be selfish, and threaded it in at the near post.
That deflated an otherwise-confident Mayuyu side that were coming off consecutive wins against tpyers and MyTeamName, as they slowly realized that they were being overrun in the middle, and had no way to stop it.
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan, although slightly overshadowed by Parada lately, was no slouch on the right either, and he would seize the moment when
Chad Thach and
Joe Reece sucked in all the attention with their one-touch passing about the 30th minute, to dart in behind. Thach read the move perfectly too, and Ferzan applied the finish for two-nil.
If there was one player that the home crowd were impatient to watch put it in the back of the net, however, it would have to be
Phua Ming Xin by far. The emergency replacement for
Chan Ze Han - and home-boy-made-good returnee - had been far too much of a good citizen in his previous three starts, in deferring to his seniors. There was nothing else to do when he found himself in with a shot after dribbling past two defenders in the 33rd, though, and his careful placement to the far post would be met by loud cheers around the stadium. They could have been even more raucous had his lob four minutes later been inches lower, but too bad.
3-0 at half-time was more than what Tian had dared to hope for, by his own admission after the fact, but it had to be his visiting counterpart De Camargo who was sweating all the more. Finnish forward Joonas Ahola would be identified as part of the issue, given his relatively economical movement through the first half, and Gilbert Stepp was sent on for him - only to be left upfield by himself as the Birds broke down the middle. Thach went for it himself after considering his options, and dashed his skipping grounder off the outside of the goalpost.
Grilled were not dialling it down just yet, and nor did they have to with their midfield engine humming along as happily as it had done for some weeks. Thach, Chia and Lim's partnership had all the signs of coming into bloom, and it would take magnificent reflexes by Philip Boestlinger, to deny
Joe Reece in the 51st. There was no stopping
Orest Tokarz's bludgeoned effort six minutes on, however, not with the Pole having already bullrushed to essentially point blank range.
This had the Birds finally slow down somewhat, and it was hard to criticize them for lowering the tempo, given how they had kept Mayuyu more or less fully at bay up till now. Unlike Boestlinger, Germanakos had barely had to touch the ball at all, with his involvement limited to a few goal kicks here and there. Others were less relaxed, and
Chad Thach's persistence - which admittedly had won him many caps as a national youth regular - would be his bane, as he strained his left calf in the 79th minute. Fortunately, he was able to continue.
Tokarz was another of those who refused to tone it down, driven by a need to distinguish himself, and he would duly claim a second for the first time since EF City midway through last season.
Joe Reece was the supplier as he swiveled around Ekborn to dig it out to his partner, only to twist his left knee badly in the process. Tokarz made it a point to acknowledge Reece's sacrifice as he hobbled off, job done, to give
Gandhik Chitre an in.
Phua Ming Xin might have gotten another too, as Chitre's arrival sparked another spate of activity in and around the visitors' penalty area.
Federico Parada was in the thick of it, as he had been all day, as he drew the long-suffering Ravarotto all the way to the outside, before playing Phua in... to bury it in the side-netting. Well, Phua will at least have one to justify himself, and Tian would see out the final minutes with Tokarz and Hutter off, Bilal and Balde on.
