Lion Of The West
Chad Reigns
Grilled Birds all but assured their continued membership in II.2 with today's 6-4 away taming of West Merlions, returning the favour of the 0-4 home shutout by the visiting Merlions at The Cooking Pot earlier this season. Not only that,
Chad Thach would collect a second league hat-trick in a month, after breaking his duck against Controlar on the first of February, even as Aide Gallartzagoitia tried to keep up for the hosts.
While most would have expected Merlions' Uruguay boss Homero Balseiro to stick with the 4-5-1 that had served them so well on that previous occasion, Balserio was not lacking in tactical courage, and he unveiled a tight 3-5-2 for the return game. Aide Gallartzagoitia would be joined in attack by Nicolae-Cristian Cută, with Martin Ramanayake a notable absence in midfield, where he was replaced by the up-and-coming Joey Quan. Fullback Ghani Naim was the one to make way for Cută, but it was otherwise a very recognizable lineup from West Merlions.
Grilled leaned more towards the offence too with
Wu Ping De's inclusion for two out-and-out wingers, as
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko found favour in central midfield. The attack would be where
Dan Alstani mixed it up, as
Chad Thach and
Chia Kwang Tse started in lieu of
Lim An Keng and
Mohd Marzuki Khairul from that last home embarassment. Both did not appear too perturbed as they chatted merrily in the dugout right before kick-off, though - which had Cută stroke it back to Gallartzagoitia.
The first half an hour was an exercise in patience as the teams sniffed about warily, to the extent that the stadium commentators had to engage in a five-minute debate over the relative merits of the Merlions' 4-0 schooling from the previous meeting, and Grilled Birds' seven-match winning streak. The latter would gradually seem the better argument, with
Hwang Teck Fu often allowed to run at the home team's backline, even if Balseiro's arrangement held firm - for now.
It felt like it would take something extraordinary for the deadlock to be broken, and this happened 33 minutes in, as opposition captain Radu-Andrei Vărzaru jumped to power a headed backpass to his goalkeeper... only to find that
Chad Thach had stolen a march on him, and that Hans Laidla had played Thach marginally onside. Their reply was admittedly swift too, as Nicolae-Cristian Cută took it wide right from the restart, and played Philippe Roudier in to equalize with a chip past
Radomil Marcol.
As if by unspoken agreement, the teams cast caution to the winds then, leading to
Hein Thiha Pyae Ko putting Grilled 2-1 up straight from
their own kick-off, with
Ananda Hettiarachchi bringing the ball up most of the way. Thach would be back at his mistake-punishing best in the 38th minute after none of the defenders dealt with
Phillip Nagata's cutting low cross, but Aide Gallartzagoitia kept the game close four minutes on, with Roudier making full use of his teammates to get past
Genki Nagano.
Although Grilled Birds were 3-2 up at half-time, this remained very much anybody's game from the evidence of the last fifteen minutes of the first half, and West Merlions were hardly short of ideas on how to make up the difference. Philippe Roudier continued to be their main chance generator with
Wu Ping De oft unwilling to stay with him, and a floater far to the back post had Dutch comrade Ajay Lieuw Fat head it marginally wide in the 54th minute.
Wu had things going for him too, and the former national youth wingman put deed to his renewed attacking self-belief, in going for a strike from over twenty yards on the hour - which crept past Constantin Mihai for 4-2. This had Balseiro motion animatedly for Stefaan Blankenstein help out in midfield, which soon brought dividends as Merlions pushed back. Cambodian playmaker Chhay Rithy showed Ananda a clean pair of heels in the 65th minute as he surged past him on the outside, and assisted Gallartzagoitia for a cleanly-hit second goal.
The only card of the match would then be awarded to Blankenstein for smashing the ball into the advertising boards by way of celebration, but Merlions would soon have good cause for more of that.
Aw Keng Chuan could not stop the increasingly-assertive hosts from passing their way through, and Gavin Stockwell tied it all up 68 minutes in, from a superb team effort. They could well have taken the lead in the immediate aftermath, but for
Hisham Zubari's shutting down of Vărzaru, who had more options than he seemed to have realised.
With the Merlions support now baying for a win, an emboldened Balseiro made another adjustment, in bringing Pierpaolo Fraviga on for Hans Laidla in a clear attempt to further force Grilled Birds back. This did not have the intended impact as Grilled wisely returned to what they knew best, and engaged the Merlions in their own half.
Phillip Nagata's constant runs proved too much for Vărzaru to deal with, and a neat little inbound pass by way of
Hwang Teck Fu, saw
Chad Thach complete another hat-trick in the 78th.
It was back to West Merlions to have to find an answer, but time was by now really running short, and
Dan Alstani twisted the knife with a drawn-out triple substitution for
Paulino Trindade,
Fu Wenlong and
Lim An Keng towards the end. Balseiro was not afraid of one final roll of the dice - though Martin Ramanayake and Ville Teuho were rather quicker in taking their positions up top - but in the end it would be
Lim An Keng to score with only his second touch, the first being expended on chesting Nagata's cross down.
