Two Over The Sea
Hwang Heads Out
This fixture against São Paolo giants Fúria Portuguesa had been meant to be a tune-up for the Birds' promotion qualifiers, but Phantasm Hotspurs' upset meant that it would be but a routine exercise for the Birds. The flight out to Brazil would be indubitably more than worth it for the chosen players even considering that, even if Grilled had to face very un-Latin tactics at the waterlogged Batalha de Diu.
The Brazilian II.2 club would set out in an ultra-defensive 5-5-0, to slight confusion from the Birds starters who had not been paying attention during the pre-game briefing. They would have some time to reset their mentality as their Swiss head coach Luki Lenherr made an extended appeal to the fans before kick-off, but Nigerian referee Zak Ego would finally be able to get the match started. The beauty in the game would be at a premium on the substandard pitch, unfortunately, with Hungarian skipper Péter Deák crushing more than a few attacks.
That had Grilled Birds slowly resort to a direct style, which didn't take too long to pay concrete dividends. Portuguesa's pressing would leave them vulnerable to sudden switchovers by multiple players at times, and this would benefit
Radovan Jaška in the 20th minute. The Czech defender wasn't even involved in the main movement, which saw
Paulino Trindade freed by
Ibnou Balde on the right. He was, however, in exactly the right spot to profit, once Trindade could squeeze a cross in.
Still, clear chances like that were rare with the hosts closing down spaces with intensity, as Turkish enforcer Vural Öznil exerted himself to cut off several developing situations before they could threaten. It would take Balde's sharp reading of the environment to predict Donizetti Cerqueira's misstep in the 35th minute to get an opportunistic poke in, only for Portuguese veteran goalie Rafael Serafim - celebrating his fortieth birthday - to scramble it away.
Phua Ming Xin was waiting, but could only send it wide under pressure.
The all-out man-marking continued into the second half, made more feasible by the heavy pitch, but this was not going to allow Portuguesa to come back on its own. For this, they had to manufacture something, and young Raniery Castelo Dias tried to take the initiative by throwing himself dramatically to the ground, after slight contact with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul just outside Grilled's penalty area. Zak Ego had seen it all, however, and this wasn't about to take him in; yellow card for Dias then, who had also gotten himself soaked for his troubles.
It was honestly getting quite miserable out there, but given how long
Teo Chuan Yong had been frozen out of the squad, he remained happy enough to relieve Marzuki for the last ten minutes. This would also coincide with one of the Birds' more serious assaults of the second half, which had Serafim punch
Lim An Keng's expressive diving header aside.
Hwang Teck Fu was in attendance this time, though, and he stuck a foot out almost on instinct, for 2-0.
That would be more or less it as
Louis Vara got called into action towards the end to pick up Vural Öznil's weak finish, and after
Bilal Mohammad Harun and
Toma Tamiya got their spare minutes, Ego blew for time before the full added minute was up - to few complaints.
