Nation Under Penalty
Raúl Milestone
War Nation FC tried the same tack in their home faceoff against Grilled Birds, but it availed them not - what with whistle-happy Barbados referee Desmond Span not intimidated by the disapprobation of the home support at Nation Arena. This led to Spanish defender
Raúl Himadas' best day since joining the Birds, as he recorded his maiden career hat-trick off two penalties and a free-kick.
Hwang Teck Fu would be restored to the lineup for the first time in a fortnight in midfield, as
Gandhik Chitre led the attack with
Lim An Keng benched. As for the hosts, they would revisit their special accomodations for
Brian Reddy in support of their counterattacking setup, but this would unfortunately fare no better for them than it had the previous week.
The Nationals would at least avoid falling prey to an opening blitz this time, and in this they were helped by the boggy pitch, the result of hours of uninterrupted rain the night before. There were thus far fewer expansive movements of the sort that had troubled them so last Sunday, and after nearly half an hour of highly-constrained play, Götz Kleinwächter cut outside successfully as Hannes Västrik struck it long to the right wing from defence. The forward just about kept the ball in, and his hurried cross would be met by a magnificent volley from Erhart von Mossner, who curled it first around the contesting
Chia Kwang Tse, and then in at the far post.
That got the fans up and jumping, which they would do again three minutes later, but for a very different reason. Chitre would suddenly fall over after holding the ball up in the War Nation FC box, and the referee judged that Thormod Formo had forced him over, to the Norwegian centreback's disbelief. Formo would still be remonstrating with Span when
Raúl Himadas put it past Juan Miguel Ditzel, and he would probably actually deserve his yellow card soon afterwards, for his lashing out at
Chad Thach.
Things soon fell apart for the hosts with Von Mossner turning villian with an ill-considered thirty-yard backpass... without checking whether Ditzel was at his post. Seizing on that own goal, the Birds would bombard the hosts relentlessly for the remaining seven minutes of the half, with Thach, Chitre and Chia all stopped only by Ditzel's goalkeeping abilities. It was a bridge too far when a second penalty was given for an obvious handball, sadly, and
Raúl Himadas crashed it into the same corner as before, with the pace being too much for Ditzel to handle.
Span would be surrounded by incensed War Nation FC players and even their head coach Vurnon Swager as he walked off the field, but he would dismiss them with whistle to mouth, which only earned him greater enmity from the stands. A tense fifteen minutes later, the second-half restart would see
Gandhik Chitre test Ditzel again from a sprint up the left side, which would be turned around with Jani Rissanen bearing down Grilled's goalmouth on the counter.
Dimitris Germanakos pulled the save off as Rissanen waited a little too long, and Norris Blackmore would then be booked as he tumbled over following slight contact with
Raúl Himadas, while chasing the rebound.
The match would have to be stopped because of a brief pitch invasion, with one incensed War Nation FC fan having had enough. Security would wrestle him to the ground before he got anywhere near the referee, fortunately, and Span looked unperturbed as he resumed play via drop ball afterwards. Grilled were understanding enough to just give it back that time, but the home supporters had not quite forgiven Himadas, from how they booed his excellent free-kick goal 66 minutes in - which was also his hat-trick goal!
Grilled could afford to slow play down, being 4-1 up, but
Mohd Marzuki Khairul wasn't about to let a possible fifth go begging, once he turned Jani Rissanen at the head of the penalty area in the 70th minute. This brought perhaps Ditzel's best save of many - a flying fingertip stop - and the Nationals would break in numbers up their left flank. Karl Ludwig Weinert found himself unopposed as he closed in along the goalline, and a good pullback left Götz Kleinwächter with an easy finish.
The Birds would continue their attacks despite that setback, and
Chia Kwang Tse would up the scoreline to 5-2 within two minutes, as
Hwang Teck Fu found the tiniest of gaps between Västrik and Formo to supply the assist. Hwang himself would have a skipping volley denied by Ditzel immediately afterwards, and was feted by the travelling fans as he went off together with
Ha Qicai in the final minute, to be replaced by
Lim An Keng and
Damian Hutter.
